Archives 2004

I really don’t enjoy having to do prolonged thought on things. It wears on me. For the past week I have been back and forth about the ideas of a vette purchase. I could make strong arguments for either choice and the mental deadlock was really frustrating. Then Friday night a diversion strolled into our front yard. Just after we got home, I was walking Nicki and we both saw a dark shadow going up our property line and then make a beeline towards us. I knew it was some sort of small animal but couldn’t tell much more than that. I held ground, even though Nicki wanted to bolt. It was a small lab mix puppy. Instantly it was sniffing and licking Nicki, when I went to pet it I got tons of licks too. I told Ali we had yet another stray dog. Not again. This one had a green collar that was way too big and a flea collar that looks like it was sloppily applied. Noone uses flea collars anymore, normally people will use those chemicals that you apply to a dog once a month instead.

We escorted the puppy back to the lanai so we could have a better look. It was mostly black with a little brown on it’s head. It looked all lab in the face but had shorter legs and big huge feet. We were guessing that some mexicans owned the dog and that they left it outside tied up. Of course the idea of a puppy being tied up outside appalled Ali. I wasn’t thrilled with that idea myself. The poor thing has some ticks on it and it’s fur was filled with burrs. We gave it some food and water which it consumed like it hadn’t eaten in days. As hungry as it was, it didn’t affect it’s personality, it was all over us. Nicki is normally terrified of all dogs. For some reason she hit it off with the puppy. Within the first 10 minutes they were playing, chasing each other around and having a grand time. Soon the initial joy we had from watching them play together turned to dismay as the reality hit that we had to come up with a plan. Ali of course wanted to adopt it, throwing all logic to the wind. I immediaitely have to point out that logistically, it is a near impossibility unless she can figure out a way to commute TWO dogs to work every day or if we can magically have Ali stay home from work permanently starting Monday. So as the night wore on we ran scenarios. We had a couple options as I saw it. Try to find the original owner with signs or just take her to domestic animals to see if she is claimed and if not be adopted out.

We spent the rest of the night untill 11 pm or so, outside with the puppy and Nicki, watching them play, watching them hang out together, thinking how fun it would be to have the puppy as well, but saddened by the reality that it is next to impossible to manage. We didn’t want to keep the puppy inside because we had no idea about her health, cleanliness, bugs, potty training, that sort of stuff. I took her out on the leash a few times and she went to the bathroom for me on cue, a good thing. We covered the outside table to shield it from the wind and then setup a puppy bed under it. She laid down on it like a good dog and slept there all night.

I slept like shit. The puppy was the last thing on my mind when I went to sleep and first thing on it when I awoke. I looked outside and she was still spread out on the pillow, sleeping. I was surprised she made no mess on the lanai and instead waited for me to take her out to do her business. Again her and Nicki played a bunch. When Ali awoke we had to decide on a gameplan. We agreed that the best option was to take her to the shelter. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of her going back to her original owner since it seemed apparent that she would be nothing more than a tie out mutt to them. It really was tough taking her to the shelter. She sat on Ali’s lap the entire time like an angel, looking about as innocent as you can imagine. At the shelter I had to do all the talking because Ali was crying the entire time. Once the paperwork was done, I asked for detail about the process. They said they hold them for 5 days to see if owners claim them, then they get evaluated and if everything checks out ok they go up for adoption. I told them that if for some reason she wouldn’t be adopted we wanted to be notified because we wouldn’t let her be put to sleep. They couldn’t give any guarantee but they thought there would be no problem with her adoption. When it was time to go, Ali was borderline hysterical, I was upset too. I didn’t even look at the puppy as we left because I wanted to maintain composure.

The rest of the weekend, I thought about the puppy all the time. Very odd that I got so attached so quickly but it had just about the perfect personality to go along with it’s cute appearance. I was very sad on Saturday, on Sunday I tried to keep busy with work and other stuff to keep my mind off it. Today, I already called the shelter to see if the owners claimed her and to get a clarification on the process. Adopting her is still on my mind but I have not been able to come up with a feasible plan for doing so..

The puppy situation was that slap in the face I needed to divert my attention from a vette. I am sort of half hearted pursuing it at this point. I am not sure why though because I think I already have determined that right now, that money would be better utilized otherwise.

I just extracted a long gray hair that was curling out of my left nostril. How pleasant growing old is. I have some stuff on my ears that has to go as well…

I have to thank Keener for this classic link. It looks like almost every one of those covers were from the 70’s. What a god awful decade for fashion.

We just had to evacuate our building because some old lady pulled a fire alarm handle, thinking it was a way to open a door. This woman drove here.

I have seen these around for sometime. I’d love to have one in my office so the geeks that watch my cam page could do things like pan around the office, zoom in on stuff, all that junk. However, it would be next to an impossible sell for the wife, unless I raised the funds from the sale of something else or other non-salary sources. I will be scouring my house for potential sale candidates.

The other week, on the drive home I noticed a house with a nice looking vette outside of it with a for sale sign on it. A Vette has always been my dream car, the top of the food chain in GM muscle cars. However the sky high pricing has always been a deterrent. Well a week or so later, we were driving by and again the vette was out there but this time it had a piece of plywood in front of it with 7,000 spray painted on it. Hmmm ok, that drew a double take from me. That is within the realm where I could actually think about it. Then, last saturday, on my way back from a rock pick up run, I stopped and actually looked at it. The owner came out and told me it was an 88. It has over 100k miles, 109k to be exact. On the outside it looks pristine, bright red with hardly a scratch on it. However as with most vettes of this time period, the weather stripping was shit. The owner said he got a quote of 800 odd bucks to replace it all. The interior was not in great shape, it needs new rugs, a new console, a good cleaning and some minor odds and ends. All stuff that I am able to do. All in all not bad for a 16 year old vehicle. He started it for me. It sounded a bit rough, he said it had one of those performance chips in it and it was a little rough until it warmed up. I asked him why was he selling it and how long he has owned it. He lost his job 3 months ago and he only has owned it for a couple months. He said originally he was thinking of asking 10k for it but said he needed to sell it asap and was willing to sell it for around 7k. Sounded reasonable. I told him I’d give him a ring if I had further interest.

Ever since then I have been thinking about it often. Surprisingly, Ali gave me her total blessing on it. She said I deserve it and she wants me to get one. You would think that would be all it takes right? Well my commitment to getting Ali to be able to quit her job this year is weighing on my mind heavily. Purchasing the car would retard the timeline for her retirement from full time work. It feels like a selfish act on my part to get it. The other part of me is saying that once she isn’t working full-time, the opportunity to do something like this may not come for a long time. I’m torn.

In the meantime I did some research and found that actually 7k is an inflated asking price for a vehicle like this. Two different used car guides came back with respective numbers of 4700 and 5200 as reasonable pricing for a private party sale of a car in good condition with that amount of mileage, surprising. I did some snooping on autotrader.com and found some examples of vette’s selling in the 6k range with 20-30,000 less miles on them. I am debating if I want to contact the seller again and pursue haggling the price based on my findings. I even picked up the phone and dialed last night but it was busy 3 times. So here I sit, still debating the path to take. I know what the fiscally responsible thing is to do. I think I will continue on this holding pattern for a bit until something smacks me in the face to definitively steer me one way or the other.

A long three day weekend with lots of things jammed into it. Saturday was Valentine’s day. I started it out by going to the local quarry and picking up stone. Project month continues, with this weekend’s project being a 3 foot stone border around the house. So on Saturday, I got a load of stone, dug the trench, laid the border and weedblock. Then I shoveled the egg rock out of the truck and spread it. (Ali helped with this as well) One load of stone was only enough to do one side of the house and the quarry closed at 11am so that was all I could do for the day. It looked great and wet my appetite to get the other side done. I had to relent for the day.

We cleaned up and got ready for our Valentine’s day gig. I got tickets to the Naples Dinner theatre to see Pirates of Penzance. Musicals are not my cup of tea but Ali likes them and since V day is all about the woman, I bit the bullet and set it up. The place was much bigger in size than I thought. When I bought the tickets, the person on the phone said we had side view seats. It was all they had available. Well they weren’t kidding. We were as far to the side as you can get. Basically, a perfect right angle to the stage. We also found ourselves seated at a table for four with 2 old gentleman. Of course when I saw this, I initially cringed inside. The one guy was a snowbird from Boston, the other guy was a brit from London with a heavy british accent. Surprisingly we were able to keep the conversation going and by the end we actually enjoyed their company. The snowbird made me laugh when he said matter of factly, “When you get old like me, you get grumpy” Hahaha. We related some of our traffic nightmare stories to the brit. He chuckled and said “So that commute causes you distress? In London, my daughter has an eight mile commute that takes an hour and a half, everyday”

He had many interesting stories about life in London. He told us the horrors of the “free” healthcare system in England. He had to wait 7 months to get an angiogram after a heart attack. Then they wanted him to wait an additional year to get a bypass operation. He could either wait the year, hope he doesn’t die or have the surgery done privately (by the exact same doctor) and have it done the following week. He opted for the latter and spent upwards of 30k of his own money to have it done. Free healthcare doesn’t sound quite so appealing to me now.

The buffet before the show was great. Every single thing we tried was outstanding. Just before the show started the stage expanded out into the dining area which meant that at least we would be able to see most of the show, a relief. Once the show started it took me less than a minute to realize that this was going to be a loooong performance. I just didn’t enjoy it. I was constantly referring to the program to see how much longer I had to endure. Sort of like what I would do when I sit through a church service. The performers were good, I guess, but it just didn’t interest me in the least. Some 2 hours later it thankfully ended to a large round of applause from the audience of mostly over 65 seniors. I tried to hide my malcontent from Ali the best I could. She liked it, so that is what mattered.

On Sunday I did a run to Lowe’s to get the materials I would need to finish side two of the rock border project. I got it all dug, bordered and weed blocked that afternoon. All I needed was the rock, which had to wait till the quarry opened Monday.

Monday I was up with Ali at 5:45 am so I could hit the quarry early. In total I had to make 3 trips till I got all the stone I needed. On Monday alone I shoveled about 2 tons of rock. It was cool yesterday (60’s) so it made it bearable. The finished result was great. It will save us lots of weeding time, as well as giving the area around the house a more finished look and being termite unfriendly (as opposed to mulch). The rest of the day was pretty busy as well. I did household chores till around 5:30 pm. Even though the day was chock full of work and it was supposed to be a day off, I didn’t really mind. I need something to keep me busy or else I feel like a bum.

A new Tivo tweak was implemented this weekend. Now I can go to my Tivo via a web page, display all the current shows that are on it, click a link and poof, it fires up the show in media player on my pc so that I can watch it on my computer. Now that is COOL!

I noticed an interesting phenomenon. I know the gnome will attack me for even mentioning this but who cares. Recently, I have switched from briefs to boxers. I find that I walk around in boxers like they were just a pair of shorts. I will walk the dog in them, answer the door in them, and even talk to the neighbors in them, where as I would never do the same in briefs. I am not sure if this is improper behavior or not. I guess I am assuming the people can not discern if I am wearing boxers or just shorts. I need to research this further.

Anyone else think Ryan Seacrest is looking run down this year? I’m not surprised. I believe he is currently doing 2 radio gigs, a daytime talk show AND American Idol simultaneously.

If you would like to see one of the funniest American Idol auditions ever, go see William Hung.

Was anyone else incredibly offended by the reports of the Mexican soccer crowd chanting , “Osama, Osama” during the Mexico /USA soccer match? That is so tasteless and over the line I can’t even describe my anger. We support this god damn country, take in millions of their people and they chant something which is about as anti-american as you can get? F them.

The morning commute has been dreadful for quite awhile now. This morning it was extremely foggy out our way so I knew it could only be worse. As feared, the traffic was backed up at the very first traffic light. This portion of the road is 2 lanes, one in each direction. As I am sitting there, stewing, some asshole thinks they don’t need to wait and swings out into the oncoming lane in an attempt to get up to the light and make a left turn. This moron is in the wrong lane for a good 200-300 yards. I hastily rolled down my window and gave the single digit salute in a fruitless attempt to display my anger at the stunt. Then the cavalry arrived. The offender didn’t happen notice they were passing a deputy who immediately swung out , flipped on his lights and pulled the moron over. Ali and I cheered like the Eagles just scored a touchdown. Hope the jerk got slapped with a nice fat fine.

The rest of the drive in was downhill from there. Every single intersection we came to was backed up. The hoardes of dump trucks clogging traffic, making it even slower since they creep along and leave huge gaps in the traffic because they don’t want to have to shift through the gears. I was 20 minutes late for work, even with leaving at 7am. It’s maddening. The first stage of the road widening out by our place is supposed to be done within the year. That should help things, somewhat. I still have ideas about moving closer in the back of my mind. They are steadily moving closer to the front all the time. Too many people on too small of a road.

At the gym today I saw another funny occurance. Someone was using the Smith machine. For those who don’t go to a gym, the Smith machine is a piece of gym equipment that is a barbell on a track with saftey hooks so if you get stuck, you simply rotate the bar and some hooks will catch on one of the stops. It also slides up and down, supported on each side by rails. It can’t tilt if it wanted to. There was someone that was either very new to the gym or very unobservant who was using safety collars on the smith machine to prevent the weight plates from sliding off. (which is impossible)

On the way back to the office I got stuck behind another elderly driver who was doing 10 mph under the speed limit. Not that abnormal except when they are doing it in a 25 MPH zone!!!!!! As he did his turtle paced right turn, I yelled out my passenger window “15 MILES AN HOUR, COME ON!” I guess I shouldn’t have done that but damn it, it frustrates the hell out of me.

I heard the Sixers coach was fired. Wow that was fast. 1st year coach and he’s gone already? What did they expect when they left Larry Brown go?

I listen to ESPN radio normally during the day on my way to and from the gym. On my way back, the host reads an email from a listener in Emmaus, PA. Being from PA, of course I know it is pronounced “E MAY US” The host had no idea and instead pronounced it “EM MOUSE” Made me smirk.

My volleyball season already has hit a bump in the road. After a week, my shoulder feels fine, unless I move it behind my head in a motion akin to hitting a volleyball. Such motion sends a jolt of a pain down the joint. 🙁 Hopefully another week of rest will be enough.

As mentioned earlier, I declared February as project month. We started out this weekend strong, tackling three projects. The projects were redoing the rose bed border with landscape ties and raise the bed so it isn’t underwater during wet season, double the size of the garden and rip down the shitty vinyl gutter in the back corner of the roof and replace them with aluminum ones. While Ali cleaned Saturday morning, I took the truck to home depot to load up. The truck was filled to the gills with top soil, compost, gutters, landscape ties and mulch. It was so full that I had the 10 bags of mulch in the cab with me. The truck was riding very loooow.

I didn’t get back until after noon so we didn’t get to start until 1 or so. Everything went well, despite getting rained on a bit. By the time dark fell I had the rose bed done, the garden done and had the roof portion of the gutters up. We had pizza delivered and took a break. Now I had a choice, either leave the gutters to be finished up in the morning or do it now. Of course I chose to put on a sweatshirt and finish up the gutters by floodlight. I was done by around 7:30 pm. Both of us were very tired and dirty. Nothing would feel better than a shower. One small problem, the damn well pump was dead again, no water!!!! Argh. This happened a few weeks ago and it simply reset itself after awhile. So we waited, waited until 10 pm. No luck. So I placed a call with the well company for a service call and called the neighbors to see if we could use their shower. They said sure, no problem. While Ali was gathering shower supplies I had a brainstorm and connected the neighbors water system to ours via a long hose. Doing so allowed us to fill our storage tank and have water! It would make do until the well company showed up. So we cleaned up and hit bed after 11, exhausted.

Sunday morning I checked the equipment and the water pressure was back, just as before. However this time I did not cancel the service call as I wanted it checked out. The tech called at 7:45 am and was at our place before 9 am, a rare example of good service in Florida. He told me what was happening was the well pump was overheating from cycling on and off repeatedly when I use it for irrigation. He showed me how to reset it if it happens again and was on his way. Add reevaluate irrigation system to the project list.

On Sunday it was cool, in the low to mid 60’s and very windy. However it was sunny so we decided to break down and go to the fair, it was the last day of the 10 day run. The had 2 choices for admission. 5 bucks to get in or 10 bucks if you wanted to ride any rides. This allowed you unlimited rides. Well I wanted to do a few but Ali didn’t want to do any so I got the magical pink elephant wrist band that got me on the rides and Ali’s wrist remained bare. We checked out the animal exhibits first, lots of fancy chickens, along with other farm animals. I always feel bad for the animals being in cages too small for them to even stand up in. Next, it was on to the rides. I was psuedo-pumped to wring every last bit of value out of my wrist band that I paid an extra 5 bucks for.

First off I decided to go on what looked to be a nasty, gut twisting contraption. You had to go 2 at a time so there was a young boy that had noone to go with so we teamed up in the front car. The compartment was super tight, I had to squeeze in and my knees and head were wedged against the walls. The ride spun like a spit while the cars went around the perimeter of the track. The little boy loved it, by the time I squirmed out my stomach already felt unsettled. Not good. Undaunted, I pushed on and looked for the next thrill filled ride. I spotted a big vertical loop that has the cars just simply going around and around, in both directions. Again it required going in pairs so I got teamed up with a zit faced teenager. This ride couldn’t end soon enough. First it rocked you back and forth, then the cruel ride operator would hold the car at the top of the loop so your head felt like it was going to pop, then as the finale we got to fly around the loop forwards and then backwards. By the end my yells of excitement were replaced by silence as I concentrated on the seat in front of me in an attempt to control my nausea. I wobbled down the steps, now feeling truly sick after only 2 rides, pathetic. I proclaimed no more spinning rides for me. They had one of those drop rides so I hopped on that for a quick thrill and I was done. 3 rides was all I could stomach. I am not sure what happens as you get older that makes you less tolerant of this sort of motion. When I was younger it seemed like I could go forever on rides. Maybe it just seemed that way, I don’t know. We both grabbed an apple dumpling, walked around a bit and were out of there within an hour and a half. The best parts of the fair were the animals and the dumpling, pretty lame otherwise. I dropped close to 40 bucks for that crap, ugh.