Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt
Yep, it's birthday time again.
No big deal really.
I had to work today, like any other weekday and she was scheduled to work until 8 oclock this evening so no going out for dinner or anything.
She had put on a crock pot full of chili before she left for work AND baked me a chocolate cake which is my favorite.
Work today was a total pain. Everybody in the place was wanting something done RIGHT NOW and gimme a minute to finish what I'm doing wasn't an option most of the time because we are in full panic mode. Complete lack of management skills by some have made life hell for us all...... But I managed to make everyone as happy as thier little miserable lives would allow so on some level I'm a hero to everyone and appreciated by none. Thier problem not mine.
On the way home my cell rang and it was Mom. She just wanted to wish me a Happy Birthday and to let me know that "they" would be over in a little bit. "They" being Mom, Dad, My sister, her hubby, and thier two kids.
"They" brought me an eight year old Juniper Bonsai tree. It is in a beautiful royal blue rectangular planter, the scale of which matches the size of the tree perfectly. The tree is about 9 inches tall and about 14 inches at the widest branchs tip to tip.
I don't remember ever asking for one or mentioning that I even liked them but I have always thought that they looked really cool. Who knows how much they spent on this tree......
I love it! I hope I can keep it alive!
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Cars, don't ya just hate them?
I have a wonderful land cruiser it's a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis.
Big, comfortable, powerful, fairly nimble for its size, 27 mpg on the highway and about 20 in the city. Not too shabby.
Only real problem I have had with it other than a poor design on Fords part of the PLASTIC INTAKE MANIFOLD which has a water passage built into it and it tends to crack in said water passageway..... oh and the heater core had to be replaced which entails the complete removal of the entire dashboard.... there is the little problem of it not wanting to maintain an idle.
Not all of the time. Not only when it is cold. Not only when it is cold outside. Not only when it is raining. Not only when it is hot. Notonly when it is hot outside. There is no rhyme or reason as to when it decides not to idle.
Sometimes it will run for several months at a time with no problem then the next time you go to start up it will not idle.
Today while searching the internet for clues as to what the problem may be, I stumbled across a possibility. There is a thing called the air bypass control. It controls the air bypass for idle speed.
It is supposed to be cleaned every 25000 miles(its only 110000 overdue).
I pulled it off the engine and checked it out..... full of carbon deposits! Stuck wide open too! I gave it a good cleaning with some carb and choke cleaner and WOW IT WORKS!
Wish I would have found this out about 3 years ago when it started acting up......
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Let's rearrange the computer room furniture today....
A large high backed "L" shaped computer desk, a large straight computer desk, a large flat desk, a small flat desk, 2 sets of drawers that are 4 feet long and as tall as the desks, a pinball machine, a large antique buffet (approx. 70 inches long), a small antique buffet (approx. 50 inches long), roll around high backed office chairs for each desk.......
This is all in a room 11 1/2 feet wide and 18 1/2 feet long.
One of the long walls is completely open through to the adjoining room with a low bar that protrudes into this room and a standard doorway at each end of the bar.
The other long wall is completely blank, no windows, doors, or anything at all.
The front wall which is a full 11 1/2 feet wide has a set of double windows surrounded by a handmade built in shelving unit. Windows and shelves are about 8 feet long all together.
The other short wall is actually only about 7 1/2 feet long due to the freezer room on the other side of the wall. The bar carries on past this shorter short wall. Total front to rear is 26 feet.... you do the math for the size of the freezer room.
You have to leave about 35 inches walkway / seating space between the bar and any of the furniture placed into the room so the actual usable floor space is about 7 1/2 feet by 18 1/2 feet.
Don't forget that you need a minimum of 16 inches to squeeze though to get to a desk but 24 inches is prefered.
You need around 36 inches to allow the chair to move around.... roll back from the desk to get out of the chair etc.
BTW it can't "LOOK CLUTTERED" either!
Have fun....... I am :)
Thursday, November 11, 2004
What a pain it has been too, let me tell ya!
After getting beat up at the Amusement park by the rides I have been feeling kinda rough around the edges. Worse than I expected by far. Every day has been a little worse than the day before, which is completely wrong.
I should be feeling much better by now.
I'm starting to think that just maybe I'm getting too old for riding such things as the whirling dervish of DEATH and other attractions that they feature.
That was until yesterday morning........ I suddenly realized the pattern of the pain. Creaking grating pain at the base of my neck, sharp aching in my elbow, shooting pains from my shoulder to my wrist. Ibuprophen ( the wonder drug of wonder drugs) is doing VERY LITTLE for pain relief.
My damn GOUT is flairing up.
Yeah, I know, most people get it in thier big toe. So I'm weird, what's new with that?
Time for me to start taking my herbs again, Devils Claw and Yucca. Several capsuls several times a day and lots and lots of water to flush everything out.
I'll give the herbs a week or so to make it go away, which they usually do work quite well, and if not then it is off to the Doctor for a needle in the butt and a round of Steroids.
My Doctor is pretty cool about the herbs,
I asked his opinion one day and he flat out said "If it works then why take the man made drugs. If it does not work then come see me" In ten years I have only had to go see him for meds once after the initial diagnosis which is pretty good since it flairs up about once a year.
Maybe a little more often if I get to have too much seafood. Shellfish is hell on gout.
Oh well, time for more water and another flush........
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Today we ventured out to a local amusement park. A fairly large one known as Kings Island. We have been several times in the last month or so due to receiving Gold season passes for next year as gifts.
Let it be known that I am a Roller Coaster freak! I love riding coasters. Bigger, faster, higher, more loops, more helixs, etc. make for a better ride.
Kings Island was opened around 1972 and I was around 12 years old. The first time that I rode the Racers (2 identical tracks side by side) I was hooked. After that I wanted to ride nothing else but Roller Coasters.
Over the years KI has added quite a few new coasters. The year that The Beast went in was amazing, Waiting in line for 3 or more hours to get on that ride was normal, and well worth it too. Many coasters have come and gone over time. Most notable was The Bat. It was the first "hanging" coaster, suspended on a steel track by rollers from above in a small black 2 seat car. That was a wild ride in its time! Of course let a few people get mangled, permanently disfigured, and /or killed and they take a wonderful ride away.....
Then came The Son Of Beast. Longer, higher, and faster than the original Beast. The thing that they left out of the description was ROUGHER! This coaster is like one long painful car wreck. The big drop leaves you weightless as you freefall at a high rate of speed, the drawback to this is that when your weight returns at the bottom of the hill, it returns with a vengence as you careen through a series of highbanked high G 360degree plus turns and several bone rattling direction changes leading up to the tight helix loop (steel) all included on the most violent wooden coaster frame imaginable.
It doesn't scare me, it HURTS me. My neck is stiff and my spine is out of alignment from todays ride. I will try to never ride it again.
More about this later..... I have to try to get in bed, and hopefully I will be able to get OUT of bed in the morning.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Saturday, the day to rest and relax.
Well for most normal people that is how it works out but not around here. Oh, no, we couldn't have that.
Not by a long shot.
Here Saturday means stuff to do that was impossible to do throughout the week. You know stuff like dishes, laundry, running the vacuum cleaner, working on the vehicles, remodeling the house, tending the garden (it is done for the year now though), mowing the grass, raking fallen leaves, pouring concrete (which is also finished for the year), etc. etc. etc. You know the normal little things....
Then there are the phone calls.
Hello, FREE 24\7 tech support here, how may I waste my life solving the same problem that you have experienced at least twice a week ever since you first got that computer.
How do I open my E-mail??
Ummmm, have you tried clicking on that little icon that you have clicked on everytime you have opened your e-mail for the last 3 years?
WOW that did it you're such a computer wizz, I don't know how you remember all of this stuff.
DUH!
I got an error message when my computer started up this morning, can you fix that so it doesn't happen again?
Can I cut your hands off so you cannot touch the computer anymore? (I think to myself) What was the error message?
I don't know what it said.
When did you get the error?
When I turned it on, I already told you that!
OK, when EXACTLY did you get the error?
Ohhhh, sorry, it was probably around 9:37 this morning.
(pulling clumps of hair out by the roots now) No, I meant when exactly DURING THE BOOT UP PROCESS did you get the error?
I don't know, I turned it on and went to get a cup of coffee and when I came back it was locked up on an error.
Call me back later after you reboot it and tell me what the error is, then MAYBE we can figure out what is wrong.
I'm thinking it's probably a PEBKAC there are alot of PEBKAC's lately...
(Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair)
My computer seems to be alot slower than it used to be. What's wrong with it?
Have you rebooted your computer to see if that helps? Sometimes you just need to reboot....
Well I'll be, it seems to be fine now. Wonder why that is??
Maybe because you have 18 different chat programs running in the background along with system commander, system restorer, system watcher, system fixer, system solver, 3 different versions of AOL, 19 backdoor trojans, 1385 spywares, 34 email virii, and every piece of junk that is automaticly downloaded when you click here to smack the monkey and win 20 dollars!
Maybe that's it?
You think?
(eye dee ten tee error is your problem = ID10T)
Enough whining for now.....
Friday, November 05, 2004
Need sleep.
At least tomorrow is Friday.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
This is just the beginning......
