Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tuesday 10/12/2010

Tuesday


Still a tad schmickens warm out there. In fact, it felt hot going home yesterday from work.

That did not, however, stop me from attempting to finish the pond project. That bugger is really being quite the pain in attempting to get it to sit in there just right. I had hoped to have it in it's final resting spot yesterday - no go.

Reading a lot of news this morning. Chilean miners about to be extracted; Clinton stating that our nation's debt poses a national security threat; the Bush tax cuts about to expire; Palin stating that Iran and nukes could lead to an Armageddon - on and on and on.

I wonder if all the Bush haters also hate his tax cuts? There is a calculator online that shows how much your taxes will increase if these cuts aren't extended. For me, a pretty significant chunk of change.

The news is interesting, but it can also be depressing - which is why I don't expose myself to a lot of it. It isn't worth the aggravation. I read it in the morning and that's almost all of it, I hear some on the news while driving, I do not watch any of it on TV.

Anyway, the work day is almost here and - amazingly - there is actually something in the truck routing system to do. Tomorrow? I get my bonus check. Very nice.

G'day.

ben

Monday

Monday


President's Day. Our company does not observe such as a holiday that is worth shutting down over, so yes, I'm at work right now - before work starts of course.

The public school system, however, uses any excuse to get out of school and for my son, it's not just today off, it's the entire week!

Well, anyway, moving on. I called mother yesterday and yes, we got into it. I brought up the exchange I had recently with my middle brother and the fact that I absolutely refuse to spend another, single holiday with him after the barrage of vile remarks that came from him towards me. I would have thought he would have already called her about this situation.

He had not. We ran the gamut of a life full of things, not worth going into here, but a few key elements were brought out. First, that SHE had written us boys off some 25 years ago - disappeared for 2 years and then came back, crying, wanting back into our lives.

She didn't even remember doing that. She started apologizing profusely - I didn't need apologies, we went through that decades ago. The point is, my brothers forgave HER of THAT yet refuse to forgive my father of his alleged wrong-doings.

The second fact I brought up is that we are not a family at all. I see my oldest brother at Christmas, once a year, that's all I ever hear from him. My egotistical middle brother I hear from a little more frequently, such as the last episode where he began bashing me for my political views, which is when I dished it right back at him.

Enough of that. I don't really want to go into it. My family is just too disjointed, there is no cohesion, it is just a bunch of people that are related by blood.

Once in a while, totally changing the subject, I take Prince to PetSmart with me. They allow you to take dogs in there as long as they are leashed and have all shots and license. Prince has all of that. He's the black Great Dane. Also a bit smaller at only 133 pounds. But, he still gets guffaws from people coming around a corner in the store - to be met by a dog that large.

October 11, 2010 5:55 AM

Anonymous said...

He is one of the most passive dogs on earth. A lady and her daughter came up behind us and the lady was telling her daughter to stay away. My simple comment is that that particular dog doesn't have a mean bone in his body. She let her daughter pet him. Seriously, I wouldn't even take a dog into a place like that if I didn't have full confidence of the dogs demeanor and behavior around other people.

Anyway, I was there to get Goldfish flakes. I have koi pellets, but those are too big for the little fishies. I take some of the flakes, grind them up in my hand and spread them over the top of the ponds for the little, itty bitty fishes to be able to have something to eat, too. I saw that they had some 4 inch long koi for sale at $4.99. Very colorful and marked fish, yes, I got a couple.

Might as well start some young and see if they will survive into old age. I really don't need any more fish, but a couple of small ones aren't going to hurt anything. The lady working the area was surprised to hear I have Mollies in those ponds as well. She didn't think they could survive in such. Well, that's where I got them, out of a pond being shut down.

As for the big pond, I got down into the hole and start to rake it with a steel rake to level it. No go. Old rake - the handle broke where the steel rake goes into it. Fortunately, those things are pretty cheap. Harbor Freight prolly has one for less than $10. It's getting down to the nitty gritty here. Get the bottom as level as possible, put the flexible liner I bought for the pre-formed pond IN the pond and fill it partially up.

Just enough water to see if it's going to be level or not. If not, drain it, more levelling and eventually, a completed pond. Once I get that done I will have the motivation to finish the waterfalls I started building before summer started.

I also have yet another project I am going to get to pretty soon. I need to put a breaker box out there and get more outlets going. These ponds and their apparatus don't use much electricity, but you have to have a pump for each pond and I want an aerator for each pond as well.

Fortunately, there is more than ample supply line for electricity out there - the line running to the AC unit. Tap into that, this will be an easy project. Well, easy enough anyway for me.

Well, work day approaches. Another day with nothing in the truck routing system. I have some stuff to do around the shop, which is good because I hate being bored.

G'day.

ben

 Friday late-morning Typical morning when there is no work.  It was, I should say, until the new guy called.  "There's nothing wron...