QUOTES OF THE WEEK: August 31, 2015

"It is not who is right, but what is right."

--Thomas Huxley, scientist

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

--John Wooden, Basketball coach

"No chance, no destiny, no fate, can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul."

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox, author and poet

"Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable."

--Theodore Vail, industrialist

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

--Helen Keller, author and political activist

MORE WORK

Well, I'm back to working with the friend who is re-doing his basement. He has found some more black mold. So now we will cut out more dry wall in one of the bedrooms. And this is after I told him that it was probably further up the dry wall than he thought. He cut the dry wall one inch up from the floor. Said that that was as high as the water got in his basement. 'Course, we all know that dry wall sucks up water. He is the know-it-all, his way or the highway, drinking, drunk while trying to get things done.

So, where do you draw the line, and say enough is enough and walk away? Or do you walk away? He has no other friends. He has chased them off. Yeah, I'm getting paid. But it just seems that it is getting worse. He has spent over $20,000 dollars on his basement. And, I'm sure it will even go higher by the time everything is done. His $5,000 dollars in carpet is to be installed this Friday. That isn't going to happen. . . maybe next Friday. I still have painting to do. 

Dry wall needs to be cut, installed, taped, textured, and painted. I'm sure he will "help." I might as well be doing it by myself. I do what I can, I'm no spring chicken. It just ticks me off that I can't get him to listen to me. It's redundant to do the same job two or three times, when we could have done it right the first time. Oh, well, it's his house and I'm the only one around to help. He has three grown boys, but they don't come around much unless they need money or a new truck.

So, I'll be busy the rest of the week. Maybe I will invest in some good ear plugs. Ignore him when he talks, and just do the work. Maybe I could get lucky, and he could take a nap for the biggest part of the day. I mean, I could be doing other things. Like fishing, or reading, or bugging Kathi.
   

BUSY, BUSY

Last week was very hectic. I had lots of things to do. I helped a friend form high school. His basement flooded out over a month ago. He was totally gutting his basement, then found black mold. What a job. So I've been helping with things as much as I can -- moving furniture, ripping up tile, tearing out drywall, removing doors. Just tons of stuff.

When it is all done, they are going to have wall-to-wall carpeting throughout the basement. That's what the boss (his wife) wants. So, it will have wall-to-wall carpeting. Even in the bathroom. I've painted doors, bookcases, walls, ceilings, and whatever else needs done. It has been going pretty well. But there is one problem.

This friend does things the hard way. It's his way or nothing. He had this homemade bar, kinda nice, made out of 2x4s, wall paneling, and some scrap lumber. After he decided to get rid of it, we moved it from the basement, upstairs to the family room. Then outside, where it sat for almost a week. Then he decided to tear it down for trash pick up. He decided to tear it down with a chain saw.

There was no pulling of nails or taking off any hardware, just chopping it up. Well yesterday, I was over to do some more painting. He decided to also chop up this oak gun cabinet. He sawed through screws, nails, hinges, and handles. You can't tell him otherwise. One part of the problem is he drinks. Not just one or two. He drinks all day long.

I'm trying to be a good friend and help him out. But he is starting to really p*** me off. He has in his mind how he wants things done, no matter if anyone has another idea. I've moved this one bookcase four times so that it is out of the way. We finally moved it out to his garage yesterday. I had told him we should just take it up the stairs and take it to the garage the first time we went to move it.

So, I have not been able to blog as much as I would like. I played hooky on Wednesday, just so I could get a breather from his craziness. I hope that I can put up with his BS until it is all done. (You might want to wish me luck.)

QUOTES OF THE WEEK: 8/17/15

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet."
--Fran Lebowitz, American author

"My favorite thing is to go where I've never been."
--Diane Arbus, American photographer

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."
-- Andre Gide, Nobel laureate in literature

"When you build bridges, you can keep crossing them."
--Rick Pitino, American basketball coach

"The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet."
--William Gibson, author of Neuromancer

FARTS ARE FUNNY

Farts are funny, real or fake. How about a whoopie cushion? Ever have one as a kid? I think I've gone through at least a dozen or so. 'Course, the last one I had was just a couple years ago. It wore out before the night was through, while we were bowling. People on both sides of our lane were cracking up. And of course it made for a few gutter balls as someone would make their approach on the lane.

As kids, farts were just plain funny no matter what. If not real, you learned how to make them with your mouth. I remember once, our teacher in second grade was up at the chalk board. She was writing something for class and had her back to us. Now, I won't mention any names, but all of a sudden someone made this real loud fart noise. Everyone started to laugh, the teacher turned toward us, red faced. Even the girls in class were laughing. 

The teacher made us put our heads down on our desks for quiet time. 'Course, you know what happened not too many minutes later: another fart. Again, the teacher was red faced. She never did find out who was making the noise. But, us guys found out who it was out on the playground that afternoon. We all learned how to make it sound just like the real thing, minus the smell. I, of course, took this new found knowledge home with me, to the dismay of my family.

I got pretty good at it. Grandmother would bend over to get something out of the fridge, I'd make a fart noise. Pappy would go to set in his chair, and I'd make a fart noise. My sister, HA! She would go to set at the table to eat, I'd make a fart noise. She would have a friend over to play, I made lots of fart noise. Even when she would hit me. Every punch launched my way, she got a fart noise. I'd set outside the bedroom door while she played with her Barbie dolls. Every time Barbie moved, sat, or drove her sports car, the farts were there.

We were at a funeral once -- someone that my grandmother knew had passed from a heart attack. So, here all of these people are at this church, and the minister is just about to start. You could have heard a pin drop. But someone let loose this huge fart. There were a few giggles, a couple of people clearing their throats, a cough or two, more giggles, and then.... the whole place was laughing. People were trying not to laugh, but hey -- farts are funny! Make some fart noises when someone is walking; every step gets a fart noise.

You can even do the fart thing at the pool, minus the noise. Get a balloon, blow it up some, and walk behind someone in the pool. Kind of place the balloon behind the person, and let some of the air out. Others see the bubbles, and blame the person for farting in the pool. You could take it a bit further and drop a Baby Ruth candy bar behind them also. But that's for a story some other time.

Once at a drive in movie I was at, someone got a hold of the microphone and managed to make some great fart noise as Dracula was changing into a bat. If I remember right, horns honked, and head lights flashed. It was even mentioned on KIMN radio the next evening by DJ Steve Kelly.

Once in high school I even made a loud fart noise as I was setting in the principal office one time for whatever it was that I got caught doing. He jumped as the noise was made, and kind of turned red, and then started to smile, but hurried to conceal it. With whatever it was that I did, and being a fart mouth (his words), my Dad was called. 

Yeah, farts can still be funny, even as you get to be an old man. So, go get a whoopie cushion and make some fart noise! 

DROOLING. . .WHERE IS MY BIB?!

This is it. A 106 cubic inch V-twin engine. (Drool) Six speed over drive transmission. (Drool) I'm sorry, Harley Davidson. This is going to be my next ride. Since they don't want my money, I'll work on getting this Victory Gunner.

I've made up my mind. Next week, I'll be taking this puppy out on the road for a test drive. If I decide on this, it will need a few little extras. (Still drooling) It will need a two-up seat, a back rest, and passenger pegs. And maybe some side bags. I like the color of this green.

No, I'm not having a mid-life crisis. I already had that. I just miss being out on the road, cruising. I've never really ridden with a group. Sometimes, a group just feels too crowded. It would just be nice for Kathi and I to just get on it and go putt around.

With other motorcycles I have had, I would load it up and take off for the mountains. There's nothing like pitching up a little camp site -- sleeping under the stars, coffee, bacon and eggs, with a couple of brook trout for breakfast. Packing up, and going down the road till you decide to stop, then pitch a camp site again.

I can put a side car on it later on, for us to take a longer trip and to be able to haul some extra stuff if need be.You can sure see a lot of country from the back of a motorcycle. It is very freeing to my soul.

If you have never ridden on a motorcycle, I urge you to give it a try, as a passenger or driving it yourself. It is something that I think should be on everybody's bucket lists of things to try or do.

Now, when I can just come up with some more dollars, it will be a done deal.
  

OH MY! AM I GETTING OLD?

Went to a friend's house because I was asked to help move "a few things" to help him get ready for some new carpet in his basement. HOLY BAT CRAP! 

A gun cabinet, an old vanity that was his grandmother's, emptied out a book shelf that goes from the floor to the ceiling, then move the bookshelf up stairs with all the books I just hauled up. A homemade bar with no booze in it. Kids' games, three safes of different sizes (that were full), a couple of gun safes, full. Pulled carpet and pad that went out to be hauled away with the gun cabinet and bar. (He put a "for free" sign on those.)

He did not have any keys for the safes, but he had the combos for them somewhere "in a safe place," he said. All written down. Dirt, dust, runny nose, sneezing, a couple banged up fingers --his, not mine. Removed some doors for painting. Washed some of the floor. By the time we got all this done in about three and a half hours, my butt was about two inches off the floor.

I'm going back today to help with painting of some doors and bookcases. That is, if I can lift my arms up past my waist. And if I can manage to get down all of those stairs he has. My god, I think I've gotten to the "old man" stage in my life. It's not time to be a old man yet, at least for another ten years or so, I would think, or hope. That would make me seventy or so.

That's when old age is suppose to begin, right? Please tell me. I can handle it. As long as you don't throw it at me. I don't catch to good any more. So, it's time for some aspirin, and maybe a rub down (or up) from Kathi.

If I can get out of the chair in front of this computer.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK: 8/2/15

"We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are."
--Anais Nin, French writer and diarist

"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery."
-- James Joyce, Irish novelist, from Ulysses

"Be sincere, be brief, be seated."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd U.S. president

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."
--Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist

"Look for the ridiculous in everything, and you will find it."
--Jules Renard, French author