5/20/07

REAL MEN DRIVE TRUCKS.

Turns out the grand bargain I got on my Subaru wasn't so grand. Granted I did only spend 600 dollars to buy it, and it came with a functional AC, which is a must here in Texas, unless you're Mexican. Apparently this little car has a sporadic acceleration problem that, up to this point,has baffled myself, the overpaid bastards at my sole local Subaru dealership, and of course, the retards down at the tune up franchise. The car runs and has not left me stranded yet( knock on wood), but all the good is constantly overshadowed by this performance problem(heh).

I have come to the conclusion that I must have a truck. Not just any truck. I want a good ol' fashioned American made Ford, Dodge, or Chevrolet....in that order. I want something with a bench seat, enough room to climb in the engine compartment, and enough ground clearance to crawl right under it without pulling out the jack and a 2x4. This is not a product of low self-esteem. This is me being practical. Being an electrician, I continually find myself in need of one.......besides, it sucks when you have to tell people that you borrowed the truck you're driving from your sister-in-law.

5/15/07

THOW SHALT NOT!

5/15/07

Too many times it seems I look upon this decaying unused heap of a blog and feel the guilt of laziness and broken promises. Every once in a while the guilt becomes powerful enough to rouse me from my mental inertness and propels me into the often loathed, menial, task of posting.

Here's a quote that struck me recently.

" Every asylum in this nation is filled with poor souls
who simply cannot stand lanolin, cellophane,
plastic, television, and subdivisions."

-Ignatius J. Reilly
"A Confederacy of Dunces"

While I'm still quoting. Here's one I thought all too fitting.

" Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. When suddenly it flips, pinning you beneath. At night the ice weasels set in.

-Matt Groening

03/27/07

Oh for the simple joys of transverse fission.......

03/20/07

Ask me if I care.............
No really........
IF..... I ever cared.....

Yawn.......

My miserable little world has frozen over for the past three days. Which hasn't really been too much of a big deal but..... most Texans, or southerners for that matter, can't drive in the snow for beans or other more choice expletives.
Being that my job site has closed down due the weather, I have been forced to lay around the house doing a whole lot of nothing. You may wonder why I haven't posted much then, but it just wouldn't seems like the thing to do.... I mean that's what everyone else would want me to do.....and let's just face it I couldn't just go along with it. So to weather the boredom I've been venturing out in the ice and snow to drink way more coffee than I'm used to drinking and debate the finer points of philosophy and existentialism with..... well the best person I can think of when it comes to debating philosophy and existentialism. As well as the occasional nasty IM chat-off.
Tomorrow I must return to work, and even though I will welcome my reacquired busyness, I will have to say that I will also miss this not so entirely wasted-wasted time.

12/15/06

Pillaged

Last night my job site was raided by some teenage hooligans. We first noticed it in the morning when we opened one of the electrical rooms and found that someone had sprayed it down with a fire extinguisher and everything was covered in about a 1/4 inch of white powder. Next we found that someone had pushed a material cart down one of the unfinished elevator shafts as well as thrown rolls of toilet paper down leaving white streamers gently fluttering in the passing breeze. Last but definitely not least, one of these fine youths, had to the surprise and I'm sure horror of the discovering pipe-fitters, felt the need to crap on a scissor lift.

These fine youngsters are the bright hope for tomorrow.

12/13/06

A certain friend reminded me of my goal of posting daily. Oops.

Part of my responsibilities as a Journeyman Electrician is having an apprentice work under me or sometimes several apprentices. This is usually not a bad part of work as it can be rewarding to be able to pass some knowledge on to someone else. However, when your apprentice is a 300 pound Slav with a short temper and a chip on his shoulder things can get out of hand. It's quite common to hear a thundering " I kill you mother bitch" when a suggestion on how to do a particular job is made that he doesn't agree with. Managing this guy is sort of like trying to point a charging rhino in the right direction, letting him go , and then you just have to hope he stays on course. This guy can literally and has on a couple occasions picked me up by the shirt collar.
You gotta love those Slavs!

12/09/06

Picked up a new book today titled Battles of the Medieval world 1000-1500( sweet!) I'm sure all you fellow history dorks....I mean buffs will share in my joy.

William the Conqueror was originally named William the Bastard.

Look at the lengths he went to change his name. If that's not a motivator I don't know what is. Sort of like Johnny Cash's "boy named sue".

11/30/06

I froze my balls off today........ actually they were pretty warm thanks to my new overalls, but I froze most everything else.

11/28/06

Winter is looming.

A wise man plans ahead.

So being an electrician I am obliged to keep myself warm with this seasons finest fashions.

My very own pair of lined bib overalls! Add some thermal underware................................. and who could resist the dashing look of a fine young tradesman sporting the latest in hard hat liner fashion?

Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

-Tyler Durden

11/25/06

Got back last night after spending a few days outside San Antonio for Thanksgiving.
Had a great time. Unfortunately the much anticipated Thanksgiving football game never quite took off. Ended up throwing a baseball around with a few other guys. Eventually someone produced a baseball bat(more like a t-ball bat) and we then took turns hitting it. After having a six-pack on an empty stomach and when using an undersized bat, a baseball can be surprisingly hard to hit. I looked more like I was trying to fight off bees.
Thanks to Tim and co. we were all entertained to a pre-dinner home made explosives show. Dinner was great other than the fact that I came under a terrible allergy attack, it seems that anytime I take more than 2 days off work I get sick with something.
Spent the next day with my parents at Lake Medina playing mini-golf and feeding the hundreds of almost tame deer(Kylie calls them "bambis"}that roam the park.
Now I'm home to face the piles of dirty laundry, unmade beds, and dirty bathrooms that I had left in the hurry to get to Thanksgiving dinner.

BP and KB

11/22/06

I've decided that I would try to change the way I blog from a few random posts a month to more of a daily entry. Everyone, including myself , tends to excuse their lack of posting as "I just don't have time" or " I'm bored of my blog" but we all actually have 5 minutes a day to write something down. Anyway.....We'll see how this goes. I personally have a whole half-day to myself right now, as I did some lobbying at work and convinced the majority of the crew that they deserved to take the rest of the day being that it is the day before Thanksgiving. So, being in a union does have it's perks...
Tomorrow I'll take the kids to San Antonio to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. I'm supposed to bring pie and alcohol(Heh). I figured if I get some good liquor it won't matter what kind of pie I bring. I might try and get a good ol' fashion Thanksgiving football game going.
Happy Thanksgiving to all family and friends who won't be there. You will be missed.

20 Flight Rock

For some reason I'm not sure why,I started singing Eddie Cochran's 20 Flight Rock at work today. Half-way through I suddenly got the premise of the song. Basically a guy has a girlfriend who lives in a high rise and he really wants to screw but the elevator is broken so he has to climb 20 stories to "get some". When he finally reaches the 20th floor he's too tired to "do the nasty". I'm sure it's evident to most of you, but I've been singing this song as long as I can remember. It was always just a fun song. I never really thought about it before. Then I remembered performing it with my brothers and sisters at old folks homes while my dad accompanied us on the guitar....... Shame on you old man!

Sometimes.....

......you just don't want to get back on.

Learn to swim.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this

Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will
I sure could use a vacation from this

Silly shit, stupid shit...

One great big festering neon distraction,
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied.

Learn to swim.

Do you see my new shoes?

I broke down and bought a new pair of climbing shoes after I came to the realization that the used pair I had got off Craig's List weren't going to cut the mustard anymore.
I had listened to and read the advice of many different climbing enthusiast and many seemed to adhere to the notion that when selecting a climbing shoe it's good to go a size down from what you would normally wear in a street shoe. The idea being that it forces all your weight onto your big toe(being the stronger one) while curling your other toes down and toward the big toe thus making it easier to wedge your foot into different holds. Also a tighter shoe allows for greater sensitivity. Some will go as far as to say that if doesn't hurt your feet than they're too loose.
After trying on a few pair, I settled on one. It seemed very tight but, being an over achiever, I figured it was just me being a pussy and that I would eventually get used to it..... I was wrong! I haven't been in such pain in years. I felt like a cripple trying to hobble up the walls. Once I got to the top it hurt too much to climb down and I wouldn't dare jump down for fear of the pain the shoes would cause as I hit the floor. Luckily a guy I had met there had also just bought a different pair for the same price but wanted the pair I had. We ended up trading shoes. The pair I traded for ended up being just right.
Saturday I'll being trying them out on my first out-door climb......Wish me luck.....

It's not that I've lost interest in you. It's not that you've done anything wrong.
...It's not you.
...It's me.
...It's just that there's someplace else I'd rather be.