all right, yesterday, a neighbor ('across the way Jay's girlfriend) gave me some Pamper wipes for Rosie, so as to clean her hips when she becomes incontinent.  I left the unopened pack on my 'puter desk, simply to find them gone, with the paper opener sticker stuck to my gas bill (pun? close enough). I ask Brian about it, and he doesn't have a clue what I'm talkin' about.  his bleach blonde girlfriend was over, but what would she be doin' in my bedroom snoopin' about?  otherwise, it's a complete mystery. I guess I'll have to call Scooby and the gang on this one...

3 beers after work, pooperdog walk, sleep, chinese buffet with Brian (whilst he continually texts others...prob'ly peroxide blondie), then put away 5 brews while watching a James Bond movie about the making of James Bond ('everything or nothing', I think the title was?). 

anyway...super windy outside. raining. I just let the pooperdog out.  I best go get 'er before the wind swoops her into the dark forest where swamp thing lives

another long ass week filled with grueling assembly line work.  peeps (including me) are getting plum (plumb?) wore out.  everyone hopes for a reprieve [from the governor?] in order to have a two day weekend.  no such luck!  we go in tonight at 10pm and pull an 8 hour shift, which will prob'ly go by quickly now that we're used to working 100 hours a day.  Mark (co-worker) stops by before work last night.  drivers readied to hit the range.  it was fun! I'd whiff the club slicing nothing but air a couple good times, but that's part of learning how to hit the damn thing (does it count as a stroke if you miss the ball completely?).   after work, Mark drives to Russ' and springs for breakfast, followed by driving me to his shack, so I can pick up my shrimpy truck that he had borrowed (he used my truck betwixt the sale of his old car and completing the buying of the new).  he's got a new (used) G6 GT Pontiac convertible.  nice ride!  I guess he dug my Pontiac convertible so much he had to grab one up himself .  his is much more practical, being a 4 seater hard top, but I still think I could take him in the quarter mile.

online banking shows last weeks million hour check bringing an extra $420 (monies over and above paying bills and what-not) that I quickly apply to the 'Kid' loan.  that plus this months monthly (redundo?) payment of $135 chops the balance from $940 to $385...that loan is almost gone (shiggity shweet)!  if we keep workin' a zillion hours, I'll have my debt gone in no time flat, if my body can survive the grueling regiment.  I get a week off starting next Friday.  maybe I can actually recharge (while looking for a 40 hour job,  drinking ale, playing golf -both video and real-, pooperdog walks, etc.)

anyway, I had a bit of time this morning to kill, so I went and bought me a couple of sixers of craft brewage for this morning and my one day weekend, plus a few groceries, some carnoba car wax, unt chrome cleaner in case the weather is warm enough on my 'stay-cation' to shine my shrimpy bat-mobile.  currently, it's been just above freezing at nights, with highs around 45 to 50F during the day.  next week looks like a lot of rain.  maybe the grass will turn from this tundra matted leaf brown to Kentucky blue soon.

sixer of Distorter porter (Greenbush brewing co), and a sixer of Shiner 'FM 966 farmhouse ale' makes for the one day weekend's liquid dizziness, along with tons of much needed sleep make up my Thursday night off.  I work tonight (10-6), so this morning, before trying to get 8 hours of snooze time in, I hit McDonald's (#6 mit a black coffee), get my haircut, do some grocery shopping (including a couple T-bone steaks, some tators to bake unt some more brew for Saturday night's grillage), and warshed me dune buggy.  'twas a good 1/2 of a days worth of things I couldn't get done whilst working 12 hour days...ok. tonight's 8 hours at the stalag will hopefully go quick, so I can have another one day weekend before pulling 12's (once again) during the week

all right, back to sleeep

...Thursday: 12 hours, and naturally, if the stalag could mess up a holiday weekend, it will.  we have Thursday night off (our good friday), just to have us come in Friday night (our Saturday), then have Saturday off.  now two days off (out of a 3 day weekend) sounds good, but when you have to sleep during the day to work the middle day, it defeats the whole weekend thang.  there are many peeps (including me) upset that they just didn't let us work tonight and follow it with a "normal" two day weekend, but that's the stalag for ya.  way to bust up a holiday, ya fock-sticks!. I hope the 12 hour day trend doesn't continue, I'm beyond frazzled with the factory burn-out.  I set up a weeks worth of Vacation somewhere in the middle of April, so as I have time to recoup and maybe look for a 4o hour/week job (they gotta still make those, right?).  I'm gettin' too old for 700 hour work weeks.

Rosie and I just got back from a small walk.  our walks continue to get smaller, due to her crippling age.  I have to pick her up just to get her up the porch steps more frequently.  she's gettin' mighty brittle.  her hind legs are to the point to where she'll be standing one minute, then plunk down randomly to a seated position with an expression on her face as if someone tore the rug out from under her.  I give her more pets and hugs...the end, I'm afraid, is nearing.  her incontinence is increasing. she's had a good long life.  I wonder (as I have for the past 6 months) how long she'll continue to hang on?  we take it day by day.  meanwhile, the pearly gates of doggy heaven squeak open a bit farther, awaiting her arrival....she can't leave, just yet, she'll need a good bath first *runs the warm water in the tub*

holy crap dude!  I don't have time to play my Tiger Woods...we're on 12 hour days, that seem to last forever!  unbelievable!  good news is we have a 50/50 chance that we'll have a 3 day weekend, or at least 2 days depending on our numbers tomorrow.  let me write down the hours before I forget.  Sunday:10, Monday: 12, Tuesday: 11 1/2, Wed...the good news (part deux) is, they're paying for all our breaks, the bad news is (as always), there's no way to determine one day from the next if we have to work the whole up-coming weekend, or actually have some sort of weekend after-all? [news at 11].

the Kid sounds like he may have hisself a groove-chicken gig sellin' Toyoter's!  awesome!  once again; keep on keepin' on!  here's hopin' you don't have to work a thousand hours a week like yer ol' man.

today's breakfast brew is Bell's 'two hearted ale...mmmms!  I only have one left, but that's ok, I gotta hit the rack any way so as I can be half alive for tonight's 12.  but first, I need to make me a big ol' bowl of Grape Nuts (slathered in honey).

first off, let me jot down my hours for this past week, so as I can check the stub next friday and make sure I'm not gettin' robbed...Sunday:8  Monday: 10, Tuesday: 10, Wednesday: 8 hours of "bank" (sick day) because of 2 things, I was actually sickly, plus, I found out that we're starting 12 hour shifts back up. Thursday: 12, Friday: 10 (time and a 1/2), and Saturday: 8 (double time), which equals a total of 58(+) hours (even with Wednesdays absence).  I guess Saturday's 8 will be included on the week after, so 50 hours...

[...]  oops!  best quick save.  the computer says it's shutting down in 4 minutes to install important updates...I'll be back.

alright.  we have a meeting at the end of our shift tonight, pretty much saying we'll have to work twelves in order to even pretend that we have a holiday weekend (good friday, and all).  it just gets better and better.  at least he's giving us a heads up this time.  we often hear bad rumors about what's happening, then fester and boil over them, just to find out most rumors aren't true.  this is the first interaction with our boss in MONTHS!  I let him know that it's good to get us involved,  keep us informed, etc.  it's truly frustrating to sort out the good from the bad when it comes to misinformation and rumors, and wonder why no one cares to let us "officially" know what's up.  we don't like being treated like cattle.  let us know!

anyway, I have more to say, but I need to get me some sleeeeeeeeeep

today's online banking finds me plunkin' down a good $430 toward "the Kid loan", leaving only $922 to pay it down to zero (YAY! let's get this sucka gone, freeing up that monthly $135 payment, which will then go toward paying down my Master Card!).  debt is absolutely going in the right direction

another long ass week at the stalag (a good 58 hours), ending in another one day weekend...oh well, I'll be able to pay down debt quicker.  meanwhile, however, my liver is starting to get crispy from all the sober work days.  we got out a couple hours early tonight, so the pooperdog and I take us a little walk, then I crack my first weekend beerage (Sundog by New Holland Brewery...mmmmmmms!).  the weather has been getting milder,  with a trace of snow overnight.  the Pooperdog likes to lick the dirty snowbanks.  it's a habit I try and break with a good tug on the leash.  after those mostly unsuccessful attempts, I turn to just walking her down the middle of the road, so as she's not tempted to stop and eat more dirty snow-cones.

the Kid sounds like he's making a good attempt at grabbin' up another job.  good luck kid!  once again, keep on keepin' on!  say Hi to Mark for me!

Mark ( work bud) borrows my truck for a week whilst he's in the middle of waiting for his new (used) car loan to go thru, meanwhile, his old Rendezvous (with over 250,000 miles on it) gets quickly snapped up on Craigslist for $1800. I'm thinkin' if he got that much for that old wreck, my shrimpy truck ought to sell for a bunch higher (being it has 100,000 miles less than his did).   I prob'ly won't sell the shrimpy truck though.  it's paid for, and I still dig drivin' it in the winter, so...never-mind.

man, that beer went down good! *BE7CH!*.  alright, maybe one more, then on to some Tiger Woods gaming...

58 hours of work this past week means a one day weekend *fart*.  I load up on a sixer of consecrator doppelbock (bell's brewing, mi), and a 4 pack of 'Paleooza pale ale' new from New Holland brewery (holland, Mi).  afterwords, I hit subway for a chicken pizziola sub (and share most of the chicken with the pooperdog).  otherwise, typical day, mostly sleep, pooperdog walks,  then shower, shave, blah, blah.  I was playing some Tiger Woods golf this morning, when Brian's smokin' hot 24 year old peroxide blonde walks thru the living room in her underwear carrying her dog toward the front door.  good gawd! she can be a professional underwear model (in my on the spot observation).  it was a 'victoria's secret meets the wood-panel submarine' moment (dear Penthouse letters). she's truly a smokin' beauty!  I try and make conversation about her dog, being we've never officially met.  it's a little shorkipoo (sp?).  it looks like an ewok.  cute as a damn bug.  the image of this smokin' beauty in her undies holding an ewok will forever be etched in the 'cuter than hell' area of my brain.  that Brian's a lucky dawg! 

the cool hippy neighbor lady  (Brian's mom) wants to borrow my computer, being hers is down for the count, and the dish network peeps need something there while they connect her new TV/internet package.  I got two laptops. I let her borrow the one from the kitchen.  it has the least amount of porn on it.  I warn Brian (as he's ready to run it down to her) that there may be some nude chicks here and there, but otherwise, she should be good to go.  she's one of the most open minded, pot smokin', atheist granny's around anyway, so I'm not worried.  she'd prob'ly be surprised if there wasn't anything "questionable" on it.  she truly is one of the most free spirited non-judgmental peeps I've ever met, so why Brian turned out so OCD, snap judgement type and warped is beyond me.

anyway, Brian rents the newest Bourne movie (the one without Matt Damon).  we'll watch it on the big TV set in the livingroom, being he's got a night off from his blonde Ewok totin' goddess...

the Kid had his 26nd birthday yesterday, and leaves a "I'll miss the people, not the place" post on his facebook page...uh-oh. it could mean one of two things, either he lost a job, or he's ready to pack up and move to Jupiter (again). turns out he got let go (Jupiter isn't very nice this time of year anyway...it's best to move there in the fall).  bummer!  reminds me a little of when I used to butt heads with the assistant manager at the rust proofing dealership.  he'd always complain that the little clock radio was too loud while we worked, so one day, I unplugged it and threw it in the trash, then continued working. I guess he didn't like that move of defiance, and fired me on the spot. I actually cried when I lost that job, but looking back, it was a move for the better.  I've had jobs come and go since, but none have ended quite so abruptly.  and as luck would have it, I got fired on a Friday, only to have a new job by Monday.  anyway, hang in there Kid, jobs come and go. persistence is the key.  as the hippies used to say: "keep on keepin' on".  a smallish care package in the form of some cabbage is on its way...it's not much, but I'm glad to do what I can on my meager prison camp wages...

looks as if peroxide blondie (Brian's girl friend) may be moving into the wood-panel submarine.  no, there's been no mention of this, but it looks eerily similar to when the old room mate ('Squatch) slowly brought his girlfriend (now wife) on board.  I didn't raise 'Squatches rent because he was already paying twice (plus) what Brian is paying.  if I see solid evidence of her actually moving in, I will confront him and quickly double (plus) his rent.  she's over here every night now, with her dog (which is actually cool for Rosie). I'm prob'ly jumping to conclusions at this point, but I wanna be ready for it this time [news at 11].

I gotta go back to sleep.  I'm only up to let the pooperdog out.  hopefully this is the last day of the week *crosses fingers for zero weekend work*. 

[...]!

damn!  I try and be real quiet so as not to wake the antique dog who was sleeping in one of her big pillow beds next to the computer desk.  I sit down and try and remember the past weeks events, when WHAM!  SNEEZE ATTACK FROM HELL, startling the dog, and the rest of the neighbors within a 20 mile radius.  couple of things happened of note; first, I busted my shrimpy bat-mobile from the depths of the snow banks (I wondered where I parked that thing?) and drove it to work for the first time in months.  it's awesome to drive the dune buggy again!  man, I missed it!  MP3 player blaring some Adrian Belew while I jam thru the gears on the now dry-ish pavement.  I'm so sick of snow, and it really wasn't even a bad winter until late in the season...still, it can go away now.  it's March 1st, so maybe a couple 3 more weeks...

and secondly, I'm so addicted to Tiger Woods '13, that I decide it would be fun to actually golf this year.  the minute I tell Brian this, he evacuates the snow board and softball caddy from the man cave living room and wheels in his set of beat up Callaways.  he suggests I pick up a starter set, then finds one online for $139.  he makes the argument; you may as well own your own clubs, it costs about $30 to rent a set each time ya play.  you golf 4 times with your own and they pay for themselves, and if, by chance you don't get into it by then, you can always sell them.  ok.  sounds reasonable  he steers me to his favorite discount golf website and shows me a couple options.  I buy a 12 pc Xterra set.  yeah, it's a no name Chinese brand, but they'll do for my beginners hack job.

'squab wanted to show his caddy skills by jumping in the picture commencing to throw the bag over his shoulder

it's funny too, because I ordered some more doggy potty pads (Rosies' gettin' a bit more incontinent in her geriatric days) online about a week ago, and haven't heard a damn thing about 'em.  I then order this golf club set (free shipping and all) and WHAM! they're on my porch by the next day!  I'm guessin' they didn't want me to change my mind.  I'm excited about seeing how many of these clubs I can bend in half before next fall.

the stalag is still playing mind games with us, I'd go over all of it, but I'm trying to purge bad memories of work, due to it now being the weekend, and all. I gotta hit the shower, buy me some craft brew, and let the weekend unfurl...

almost all of my time I normally set aside to blahg about bland nothingness has gone toward a million hours of Tiger Woods '13...that game rocks the most!!

let's see. almost 2 weeks have elapsed since my last post.  big news would be the weather.  my snow blower (usually lonely) has been working overtime to keep up.  it's proven itself to be a great workhorse!  it handles the biggest jobs and the wettest snow, with some trouble with the packed icey shit, but that's normal with any model of blower (unless they've perfected the diamond tooth auger?).  I'm about sure it's saved me from at least a half dozen potential heart attacks from the dreaded shovel.

Brian (room mate/almost neighbor) tells me that the other day, whilst getting out of his car at work, he slipped and fell on the ice, hurting his already injured knee.  someone had to help him inside where they performed a breath-0-lizer test.  now before I tell you the results, he's bragged about being clean and sober for 10 years. yup, you guessed it. he failed the test!  they gave him another 15 minutes later...FAILED! at this point he refuses to sign the test results.  I don't ask if he's lost his job over it, but he has been waking up everyday and leaving as if he still has it, so I can only assume that he convinced them somehow...

the stalag is up to there bullshit again.  this past wednesday, the boss tells us (or those who ask...in this case, Charlie) that we have the weekend off, and we only have to work an 8 hour day that day.  we did in fact work an 8 hour day, but the next day was the same story.  8 hours tonight, only to have that reversed come 4 am (when our 8 hours should have been up), but it's reinforced that we won't have to work this weekend.  Friday comes along, and two hours into it, the boss texts our route runner to inform the team that we do, in fact, have to work this weekend.  GODDAMMIT!! why the damn mind games?  I don't mind so much working overtime, but when the carrot is dangled in front of us, only to have it yanked away at the last minute, I  (and most of the rest of the team)  am going to get mad!  in protest, I call in using one of my sick days.  it's a damn shame I gotta use one of six provided sick days to cover for a weekend that we should have had off to begin with.  the place is good at the total mind fuck.  I know I've said it before, but I really have to update my resume and find me somewhere that treats people less like cattle...meanwhile, at my favorite beer store, I run into Steve.  he's a former co-worker (who still works at the boat factory) who tells me they (boat factory) would take me back in a heart beat, if I re-applied.  seems they're having problems finding good help.  again, I best update my resume and reapply soon.  I liked it there. I didn't care for my boss at the time, but I'm thinking he's gone by now (being they laid off a good 700 peeps when I got laid off).

let's see. what else?  Rosie's still kickin'.  the old dog sure does like to hang around [amazingly!].  I dig that!  Squab's doin' good too.  ummmmmm...I'm eager for spring to come so I can un-bury my shrimpy batmobile and ride it mit the top down once again.  that'll be awesome!  I guess it'll be a good three weeks (+/-) before I can do that. otherwise, I'm currently drinkin' a sixer of Magic Hat's #9 brew (mmms!) and contemplating what type o' movie to watch later on.  maybe a good Donnie Yen martial arts movie would do?

first pic:  silly stone age dog getting a bath.  the best shampoo still can't get that antique white off from her.  and the second is a schizophrenic chart showing my MC and Kid loan debt. it's not very readable.  long story; short. since September of last year, I've been able to reduce my debt from $6250 (top figure) to $3292 (bottom figure).  that's almost halfish. I hope to have it totally gone by my birthday...[news at 11]

his smokin' hot blue eyed peroxide blonde girlfriend, of whom is less than half his age, sleeps in on Saturday morning while Brian (awake and drinking coffee) shows me his next potential conquest on his smart phone. "her name is Heather".  nice. he's trying to be Charlie Harper (2 1/2 men) minus the booze. 

he sees a doctor about peeing alot (like everyone goes thru as you approach fitty). he's goin' in for an ultrasound to make sure it's not prostate cancer.  they'll prob'ly just send him home with a prescription and tell him he's getting old...

[...]

pooperdog let's me know she's gotta go potty.  I'll be back after our walk

wow, last night, all I needed was a sixer of various craft beers to knock me out cold.  I laid down on the couch and rented the newest batman movie, and couldn't get thru about 1/4 of it before I went all lights out.  oh well. I can try again tonight.

snow up the ying yang fell overnight Thursday.  coming straight out of work, I did some grocery shopping, then fired up the (usually lonesome) snow blower and proceeded to clear not only my driveway but about 7 others.  that thing can tackle some pretty heavy shit!  it's an awesome machine!  and speaking of work, we were asked about 4 1/2 hours early who wants to go home? but then as it turned out, we all got farmed out to different lines.  I worked on a substation called a 'slide block' machine.  pretty boring work after being told we'll be able to go home.  they pull this shit all the time. I'm so used to being their green broke pony tethered to that marry-go-round of disappointment.  the good news is we still got out an hour early (shoulda been 4 1/2 hours early, but what can ya do?), and we got a real weekend!  I take a minute to put on my million dollar windshield wiper blades, and add what's left of my washer fluid into the reservoir (yep, Brian went and filled his washer tank with almost 3/4's of the bottle of fluid I had bought...I know if I bring it up to him, he'll claim it was his to begin with, even though it's not.  he pulls this once in awhile.  room mates.  what can ya do?  he makes up for shit like that by grillin' every now and then, so it's all good).

let's see.  nothing new under the sun...oh yeah, THE SUN! past couple of days have been rather sunny. it feels good to see the sun again.  it's usually only for a couple of minutes while I let Rosie out, but after so many weeks of solid grey it's a welcome sight.

[3/4 naked girl, 1/2 my age pic to break up the boring rants...are those blocks of foam she's lying next to? I could use those to replace the filler in Rosie's bed]

get out of work an hour early, and find out we don't have to work the weekend [double score!].  there's a meeting after lunch held by the plant uppidy up about cellphones (starting tomorrow) are off limits on the work floor (which has been an unenforced rule forever...it's about time they start cracking down).  Dale (our lines "tear down guy"), having phone withdrawal fits, wastes a HUGE amount of time each day on the damn thing.  now he's wasting even more time about the unfairness of it all (even though it's always been in place, once again, never enforced).  he threatens to bring it to court, blah, blah, blah. I say hooray!  these peeps who surf facebook when they're offline tend to get in the way of peeps who actually work. it's about damn time they cracked the whip!  people think once they get on a sub (substation offline to make parts for the online peeps), they're no longer on the payroll and can fuck off as hard as they want [wrong!]

I gotta pick up Nate tonight.  he's a guy who's always getting a ride from Kent, but he'll be late due to his kids basketball game (or some such).  looking at the news this morning, we're in for some heavy snow today, so I'll have to set my alarm clock for an hour (or 2) earlier, so as to make sure I leave myself enough time...

just finished filing my taxes online. I made almost 10 grand over what I made last year!  all that overtime really ratchets things up. I get $660 back from the Fed (minus $40 and something to file it), and a measly dollar from the state (even though it cost me $36 to file the states...).  I should prob'ly just ignore next years state taxes, but I'm sure I'll forget by then.  I learn my lesson every year, too late.  anyway, I guess I'll be gettin' around +$580 something direct deposited thru e-file (pending fed and state except it) within 21 days (or so the thingy on the tax website said).   I'll prob'ly plow most of that toward reducing debt...

gettin' tired. gotta make me a bowl of cereal and crash

zoom out early today for a McDonald's McGriddle meal (mit black java), get some shopping done which included way too expensive windshield wipers, and 5-70 lb sand bags for the back of the truck making it much more stable to handle in all this snow...yup, it was about a week (or two) ago when it was rainy and fitty degrees.  since then we got dumped on pretty good!  also, I get my haircut, search out (but don't find) some good reading glasses, buy another sixer of craft beers, swap out an empty propane tank for one that's filled, purchase some foam to re-stuff Rosie's beds with, but the damn stuff's so expensive, I only buy one piece (throwing the other two bed cases out, being they were the most tattered of the three) etc.  it was a most productive first half of the day.  the rest was filled with slack and power-nappage.

yesterdays beer soaked bar-b-qued ribs (mit corn unt tator salad...oh and, I was beer soaked, not the ribs) was a huge hit!  the football game was pretty intense.  the Ravens pull it off.  next year the Lions will beat the Vikings (or not?).  now it's college basketball season 'till June (which I'll avoid like the plague).  meanwhile some good golf tourneys are scheduled here soon. those are always cool to watch...

I get an old message on my phone, that I hadn't seen before.  it's the Kid's boyfriend Mark asking if this is my phone and here's his number to stay in touch with.  damn!  I pay attention to that phone so little.  he prob'ly thinks I'm snubbing him by not replying.  sorry Mark (I figure he prob'ly doesn't read this, but I know the Kid pops in from time to time...he'll relay the message).  I best reply with an apology.  also, I get a voicemail from my dad.  I really gotta call them one day.  I've been a hermit for too long (when it comes to keeping in contact with parents).  it's a little tough being an extra-introverted private guy.  peeps take it personal...I don't mean to be mean, I just like a bit more me time than most, I guess?

anyway, tonight, I gotta try and stay awake, sleeping during the day tomorrow, what with going back to work tomorrow night, and all. my extended weekend off is coming to an end.     maybe I'll play some Tiger Woods '13 ...  *plan*

I take Monday (the 3th) off for a three day weekend, but then days before that weekend happens, they (stalag) go and change the weekend from Saturday and Sunday to Sunday and Monday (due to the overwhelming amount of peeps wanting Superbowl Sunday night off.  because of the change, I actually get an extra day off, by asking, since I have Monday off (the day I turned in a vacation slip for), can I slide that vacation day a day over and still have all of the weekend off?  he said yep!  cool!  1 days worth of vacation for a four day weekend!  bargain! 

just got done using the snowblower for the second time this winter.  this time it gave it a good work out.  the snow came down pretty heavy last night.

had a bit of the throat crud near the end of this week.  I O.D. on some purple stuff (night time cold shit) and sleep for a long time.  I'm feelin' a bunch better today. 

took the time to strip 4 of Rosie's bed pillows and washed 'em.  the foam inside 3 of 'em are pretty 1/2 rotten (for lack of a better word), so I'll have to hit a hobby lobby nearby for foam replacements. 

Brian just asked what I want with ribs (he's cookin' some ribs on Superbowl day).  I tell him whatever sounds good to him. made a quick beer run after blowin' snowage. I make sure I have plenty of beer before we potentially get snowed in tonight.  it'll be an excellent weekend!  *go Ravens!*

the more I investigate these websites about dog treats that cause kidney failure, the more things seem to fall into place.  I've bought many o' bag of chicken jerky for Rosie, thinking it a nice healthy snack (at $12 a bag).  I might as well had filled her water bowl with Prestone II.  these treats made in China are toxic to say the least.  if you remember about a month ago, I had mentioned Rosie was close to her deathbed days, thinkin' maybe it was simply her body giving out from old age.  come to find out a lot of the symptoms (lethargy, diarrhea, drinking tons of water, urinating a lot, not eating regular solid food, etc) were all the signs she was showing.  and again, I would have brought her to the vet if she was any younger, thinking you can't cure old age.  the tell tale symptom on these websites was a mucus-y stool (which she had, when she didn't have diarrhea).  anyway.  it's been over a week since Wagin' Trains recall, and she has bounced back significantly.  her lethargic ways, gone.  her poops, much healthier.  she walks in front of me now while on our walks instead of  trailing along at a 1/2 mile per hour hour pace.  she seems a bunch happier.  it's like day and night.  I just hope no permanent damage was caused.  I'm thinkin' maybe I'll make it up to her by buying her real chicken, cookin' it up, cuttin' it into strips, throw 'em in the coolerator to use as treats *plan*

now, quite honestly, having said all that, I can't be %100 sure that  it wasn't her age and not these treats at all, but it's hard to not jump to conclusions due to the overwhelming symptom parallel, and, of course, I'll never buy these treats again, so we'll prob'ly never know for sure...

I use my snow blower for the first time today...I completely forgot how to start the damn thing since it's been a year+.  the neighbors were prob'ly laughin' at me as I looked at the machine all dumb-founded like.

couple inches of snow [finally] and a bitter cold wind chill makes for frost bitten pooperdog walks.  I got a heavy jacket, good ski mitts, but I still need something more sufficient to cover my whole (the holes in my) head.  that old ski band that simply covers the ears at doin' it.  maybe I'll get me one of those goofy plaid Yooper peninsula hats, that have the deer skin ear flaps.  I looked at those last year, but never pulled the 'add to cart' trigger....

this bitter cold snap has my power steering whine like a big dog when starting it up.  once warmed up, the noise goes away, but that initial turn of the key is way loud.  I think it's still has 90% stop leak fluid in it, which is molasses thick to begin with.  the colder the weather, the more it turns into pine tree sap consistency.  I'm waiting for the serpentine belt to give way on one of these cold starts.  I got another belt behind the bench seat just in case.  here's hopin' I don't have to replace it in the cold darkness...speakin' of which, I really should put a flash light in the old bomb for just such an occasion.  maybe I'll cob the one I have from the shrimpy bat mobile *plan*

while shopping last weekend, I notice that there were red tags on the empty shelves that used to hold Waggin' train dog snacks, saying "do not restock, item has been recalled".  I look on line for a reason why, it looks as if they were made with a trace amounts of anti-biotic (according to Waggin' trains website), which in other countries is ok, but doesn't pass the US standards.  other links go on to include stories of kidney failure and even death due to feeding there dogs these treats.  other brands include Milo's kitchen (which I also buy).  damn!  I gotta wonder if I'm poisoning my dog every time I buy her snacks?  not good.  not good at all. *link*

the 3 day weekend consisted of lots of beers, Tiger Woods '13 golf, football playoff games watched, some bar-b-que chicken (grilled by Brian), made with steamed asparagus, cheesy rice,  and some sauteed mushrooms (mmmmmmmmmmms! did I mention that guy can cook? prob'ly.)

I almost bought another bass guitar.  this one resembling my very first guitar.  a Univox Hi-flier, but it wasn't meant to be, being someone out bid me.  oh well.  maybe next time...I really ought to play the one's I got, and stop pretending that I'm a "musician", simply by having more guitars (hehe!!).  I'd play it now, but for whatever reason, Brian didn't wake up for work.  I wonder if I should knock on his door?  nah.  he's been sickly most of the weekend.  maybe he decided to play sicky hooky?.  I've been lucky [so far] that I haven't caught the bug.  anyway.  sleeeeeeep

looking at my pay stub to see if the raise (that I was supposed to get starting the 1nd) kicked in...yup.  what's even cooler is I'll get another 40 cents come March!  $12.70/hr ain't too bad for these crappy economic times.   now, if only the hours would cut back from 60+ down to 40, I'd consider it a decent job once again, and drop the prison camp status.

pooperdog and I just took us a walk.  it's mild weather (40 degrees), but the wind is kickin' pretty strong.  it's been a gigantically mild winter. my snow blower, once again, is feeling lonely.  maybe we'll get hit come February?  one big snow storm would be nice, just to remember what snow looks like

cleaned the house and gave Rosie a bath before taking an afternoon power-nap then did $163 worth of damage at the grocery store (this may be the highest amount I've ever paid?), leaving me like $6 'til next Friday's pay check.  Brian plays a movie called "the Strangers"...I may have seen it before, but it might have been during one of my drunkenings.  1/2 way good horror flick starring Liv Tyler.

tonight's brew of choice; Cabin Fever (new holland brewing co: Holland, Mi.) and Dogfish head Chicory Stout (dogfish head craft brewery: Milton, Delaware).

"I got some bad news about overtime...", the bosses boss starts.  I'm thinkin', here it comes, he's gonna tell us that we have to work both Saturday AND Sunday, but then he continues with; "we won't have any this weekend, you guys get 3 days off because of the holiday [MLK day]." to where some actually considered it bad news (those that volunteer for overtime), and others (like me) welcome the break hugely.  I was so sure that we were gonna have another one day weekend, that I started organizing a pizza lunch the day before.  oh well.  pizza can wait...

Brian (room mate/almost neighbor) is sicker than a damn dawg.  I'll prob'ly catch it just as I'm ready to go back to work.  meanwhile, I'm opening doors with my sleeve, drinking tons of water (and beers), being overtly cautious about touching my face, and washing my hands like an OCD fiend.  just maybe I can skip this one if I'm lucky.

Tiger Woods '13 is the shit! I won my first PGA Masters game as an amateur with a 9 under score.  of course, I used the caddy tips every shot, but I'll put those away as I learn the game.  this one is so much better than '11. I'm hooked!  one day I'll actually pick up some REAL clubs...yeah, I know. I got a good 15-20 years before I "retire" (if I make it that far?), but maybe if I start now, I'll be half good at it as an old fart.

recent digital downloads (over the past couple 3 months) include 2 Tomahawk CD's, Faith No More, Tom Waits closing time, Junior Brown's greatest hits,  some Violent Femmes and Adam Ants first album 'Dirk wears white sox'.  good shit! new tunes for the MP3 player in the shrimpy bat-mobile are a good thang!  also I buy a couple digital movies: 'Species' (Natasha Henstridge being my favorite alien ever), 'Enemy at the Gate', 'Sin City' and 'Machete'.

[...]

I just petted the dog while thinking about what else to type.  she has a wet hip again.  she's peeing herself. incontinence is common for someone who's 120 years old. a heart beat and breathing in and out isn't as common.  she's older than dust itself, but still keeps on truckin'  do they make doggy diapers?

once again, I start with the old cliche; "damn, it's been forever since my last entry".  nothing new under the sun [work, sleep, eat, pooperdog walks, etc] other than a cool visit from the Kid.  we hit the mall (in Grand Rabbits), did lunch at Red Robin, and seen the latest Torentino (sp?) movie.  it was a good day to play catch up.  seems he and his boyfriend are doin' well down in SC.  awesome!

Rosie's still kickin'.  I'm beginning to think she may be immortal.  Squab' is doin' good too...

did I talk about my doctor visit?  prob'ly. I'll do a reader's digest version just in case I hadn't.  the lab results on my blood sample came back in time for my physical exam.  the doc says everything looks good other than my elevated blood pressure and my cholesterol.  the EKG he ran on me looked good too. I peed in a cup, and everything seemed "normal".  I was almost expecting something bad being a heavy drinker and all (when I have a half a weekend to drink, that is). I drop a lot of my hypochondriac thoughts after leaving the doctor. apparently, one [non exercising booze hound] can be in good shape at age 50.  who knew?

last weekend, Brian makes some T bones and baked tators (mit mixed veggies) on the grill. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMs!   good gawd, that man can cook! we do the whole steak feast whilst watching the NFL playoffs.  it's a man cave thang...

Hooey- sorry for not replying to your "merry squanksmas" comment.  I just now ran into it.  it almost slipped by unnoticed.  I [STILL] would love to figure out how to paste comments on the same page as the entry.  there's GOT to be a way. I see other Xanga users who have it set up that way.  how'd they do that?!.  *looks, once again, in 'settings' page*

Rosie and I had just done our pooperdog walk, so it's back to sleep for me for a couple hours,  so as I'm not zombie-ing about tonight.

the week and a half off from work was most pleasant.  not a lot got done.  a ton of slackin' in front of the TV watching a gob of football, and drinkin' a beer (or 12).  speakin' of beer, I guess when the oral surgeon hands you a list of pre-/post-op things to do and don't do. ya might wanna follow 'em to a 'T'.  it wasn't but less than 10 hours after the surgery when I decided the bold lettering on the list to wait 48 hours after the operation wasn't soon enough.  of course, he told me to gargle with salt water 4 times a day should happen as well, but figured a good beer gargle (whilst sporting my beer goggles) would be a good substitute...WRONG!  after waking up the next day with a mild hangover, I noticed my throat was on fire (did I mention this?).  I quickly started following his directions after one side of my sinus cavities became inflamed.  ouch!  if only...next time I'll follow the directions.  everything seemed to feel better after the antibiotics were gone.  all-in-all, I'm glad I had time to relax.  going back to work the next day would've been a bitch!

the 89 year old neighbor, of whom just last week, told me he's concerned about who'd take care of his dog after he and his wife were gone, had lost their dog yesterday.  like many of the other pets around here, it had cancer (is this the 'Love Canal' for pets? *it's a very old reference...look it up*), and had to be put down. it was a little dachshund lookin' dog but with an unusually large belly.  it was only 8 years old.  Rosie's twice that and still kickin' like a wobbly army tank!  she has her good days and bad, but still has the glue to hang on into the new year (amazingly!).  keep on, keepin' on ol' girl!

[...]

Brian stops to talk for a minute and reminds me to check on when I go back to work, after he claims he's gotta go back tomorrow morning.  DOH! my slack time is coming to a screeching halt!  I look at my facebook reminder and it tells me 10pm on Jan. 2rd.  good.  meaning I should probl'ly sleep today away, be awake all night, sleep all day tomorrow in order to re-acclimate my body back into that fun filled graveyard shift schedule.  hurray!! back to the stalag for more fuN!  we're supposed to get a raise starting on the 1st of the year, but I doubt we'll hear how much until a couple weeks go by when our check stub will let us know.   you know how that place works.  nobody seems to know nothing about nothin' 'round there.  I didn't even know what day I was supposed to come back to work. a friend had to facebook me about it, when he found out. I hope he got the information right.  I know, right?!  stupid place! anyway...sleep!

have you ever had that pine cone lodged in your colon where even the longest salad tongs couldn't reach it?  yeah, neither have I (not on purpose...what? so I fell out of a pine tree naked once.  who hasn't done that?) anyway, to my point. it's been a solid two months since I've had to deal with my broken toof.  the pain, at times, was more than debilitating!  I couldn't clench my teeth together due to the swelling and pine cone/ass style pain.  the day to extract it finally has come and gone.  I don't remember any of the procedure, due to being completely knocked out.  I do remember getting help walking toward the rear fire exit with Brian's car at the ready.  I was coherent enough to walk around the grocery store, half stoned off from whatever they gave me intravenously, so we could pick up some lobster tail and fillet Mignon for the grill on Tuesday.  anyway.  days later. the tooth holes are still tender.  I can feel the stitches. my face has that swelled jawl look. it feels good to finally close and clench my teef without the normal grimacing pain.  no one should have to endure such pain for so long. it's very much like (and I've mentioned this before) waiting in dire agony seemingly forever to get my hernia operation done and over with.  the day of the [toof] surgery, all I could eat was soup broth.   the day after, hamburger helper. yesterday, I tried my first post-op hard shell tacos.  yay!  I can eat again!  surviving this venture was worth the world not ending (what?).

Brian (room mate/almost neighbor) cleans the house to the point where he'll put my stuff away too. I'll look for the honey bottle every day. it's normally on the counter next to my coffee pot.  he'll throw it in the pantry. I don't mind so much but ask him why he can have his creamer (for example) on the counter while he insists my honey has to go in the pantry? "because it's a designated spot for creamer!".  then I start wondering if I have to write my congressman to find me one of these "designated spots" for the honey. even after talking to him about it, I see the honey is back in the pantry this morning.  today, I find a bag of his popcorn on the counter. I put it in the pantry to fuck with his head a little (two can play this game).  let's see how much he likes his shit being moved.  this is just one example (of many) where he over cleans.  he's moved the bathroom trash can three times. just when I get used to the new location, he'll move it again.  I think he's fockin' with my head on purpose.  he's an OCD head case.  but as long as he keeps payin' the rent, I can deal widdit...

yesterday, I hit Best Buy to look at clothes washers (mine still works but sounds very much like it's on its last leg). I like the LG top load HE model they have in store, but can't find the same one on their website.  anyway. it's about a $700 washer.  I may grab it after Christmas...

looks like the Kid has moved to a new location, plus he's coming to town in a week or so.  maybe I'll use one of my newly acquired batch of sick days to hang with him for a spell.  it's been awhile since I've seen him.  it'll be good to catch up, if we can find a day.  I'll facebook him and see if he can fit his dad into his agenda.  maybe we can hit Red Robin, or see a movie...?

what were supposed to be all 12 hour days at the stalag have slowly become 11's and 10's as we get closer to the Christmas break.  only 1 day and 4 hours to go...

all I wanted was a donut. 1st, I put a $20 bill in the change machine only to get $10 in change back, next I use a dollar in quarters to buy said donuts only to get "use exact change".  dammit!  I eventually find someone with change for a quarter, only to select the donuts and have them hang up on the spiral arm rack...FOCK!  at this time I'm ready to break the damn glass and just reach in a grab it, but better judgement took over.  the vending machines at work have made my shit list.

Mark starts off the day by handing out scratch off lottery tickets  to a select few friends at work. I thank him, then promptly tell him that if I get the $300,000 Jackpot, I'd split it with him (willing to split any winnings for that matter).   I grab a coin (of which I now have $10's worth of) and slowly scratch off the (...whatever you call the surface stuff on a scratch off card).  at first blush, it's a $20 winner!  I tell him we'll split the pot if he cashes it in. he's good with that.  he comes back after break and shows me the card.  this time it's worth $100! seems I didn't scratch off above all the symbols and numbers.  I tell him he could have cashed it in, given me $20 (earning him $80 instead of $50) and I wouldn't have been the wiser if he hadn't shown me, but being one of the honest good guys, he thought he'd make it right.  I get half a 100 and he gets half a 100.  it's a cool Christmas gift!  he puts the remainder of his tickets (to give to friends later) in the back of his locker, which, in turn slid through the crevice into the locker below.  he said he also slipped a note down explaining his mistake.  not having any idea who's locker it is, he figures he'll never hear about 'em again...

dammit! someone's hacking into my gaming system account again...I hope they choke on their new game! I quickly change the settings to make it harder to hack, changing passwords, pin numbers, etc..  seems there's an option that requires you to use a password after checking out an online purchase.  why didn't I have that turned on from the start? prob'ly because it's turned off by default.  anyway, if this doesn't slow 'em down I may have to enter a new card number or close the account all together [...news at 11].

after 2 days of 12 hour work nights, I'm ready to scream!  it's a damn night mare!  they gave us a smallish reprieve tonight by having us only work 10 hours, but still, I have no idea how I survived those 12 hour work days in the past.  somewhere on this planet there has to be a 40 hour work week job with my name on it (please?).

anyway, I gotta get ready to work the focking weekend away.  drink a beer for me

like last nights 12 wasn't enough, the boss declares everyday (including this weekend) until the 21'st 12'ers.  fock!  here we go [again]!  he makes the case by saying "at least we have a week and a half off for Christmas".  yeah, but until then we're also jamming a week and a half plus worth of work hours within this next work week. 96 hours to go 'til Christmas break.  just one of many absurdities...when will this place treat people like humans?  prob'ly never. 

that last entry posted was almost a goner.  after typing it all in, it looked as if the 'puter froze.  I couldn't post it, but then realized I was able to move the curser, so I cut and pasted the text into an email that I sent to myself, then cut and pasted from that onto a new entry once the 'puter unfroze (after a good reboot).  success!  I don't know how many posts I've lost by having windows take a crap.  it's getting a lot better than the olden days of 'blue screen of death', etc.. 

[...] *looks at the clock*

oh damn.  best get ready for the stalag

I'm officially old.  I went to the doctor yesterday to get my med release  for my toofus extraction.  they hooked up an EKG, and did a blood  pressure check there.  everything seemed a bunch calmer (135/88 at the doc's as opposed to  155 over 93 at the dentist).  he recommends I buy me a blood pressure  checker to periodically keep track then prescribes me some "water  pills".  I call my dentist today, to see if the doc faxed the med  release.  nope.  I call the doc but he's closed today. I'll try again  tomorrow.  after all is said and done, he sets me up for an appointment  for lab work (which I go in for tonight before work) and a January  physical exam.  damn, all this shit for a crappy tooth!  what's next?.  meanwhile, I'm patting myself on the back for actually making these  past 3 appointments.  oh, how I do hate going to the dentist/doctor.   it's been awhile for both. these visits seemed very comfortable.  I'm  officially old!

my second second written warning.  although the stalag gives you 65 hours a year to use however you like (for sick days and what-not), peeps (including me) are getting written  up for having less than 20 hours left.  why the write ups?!  isn't it to be used for anything?  besides that, mine says "second warning" again.  I got one about a month ago that said the same thing.  I'm still  waiting to get my "first warning".  I guess a second "second warning" covers all.  I still have 14 hours  left, of which I may use a couple of tonight.  seems they let us know  yesterday, that we're having a "christmas lunch" tonight, and we gotta  come in and pull a 12'er to cover the difference.  that, to me, just  don't seem fair. we'll give you a party, but you gotta work extra for  it...thanks!.  some "party".  catered chicken and listening to different charities  make their pitch for some "caring and sharing" program.  I don't care.  I don't share.  there..  anyway. I have no idea how long my lab work appointment will take, so  I'll bring my phone with me, in case I have to call in 'late'.

this lab work I speak of is prob'ly a simple blood draw, but it required  that I fast for 12 hours.  I'm hittin' the golden arches directly after.

another bland week of a million hours at the stalag, leaving yet another 1 day weekend.  the only thing holding me together is the rumor that we may have a week off 'round Christmas time, but who knows?  they won't officially tell us 'till the day of...

my toof hurts me good on Thursday night.  I end up going home after an hour and a half of sheer agony.  it's swollen to the point where I can't clench my teeth without jets of pain jutting into my brain (I know, I'd rather have two broken arms than this kind of agony).  I see the doctor on Tuesday (to get my blood pressure checked, to be "ok'd" to go through with the toof pulling procedure), then it's only two weeks before they yank these puppies.  good gawd!  two weeks is an eternity when you're in pain.   it's similar to waiting seemingly forever for my hernia operation...days and weeks seemed like months while dealing with pain management.  I call around to Grand Rabbit's oral surgeons on Friday, to see if I can get an earlier appointment?  seems everyone (according to one receptionist) is trying to get their dentistry in before the end of the year to take advantage of what's left of this year's insurance bennys, plus college kids are home for the holidays, busy getting their teef cleaned/fixed, etc..  great! I picked an awesome time of year to have a busted toof.  oh well.  ibuprofen helps tame the fire...'Cabin Fever' [Founder's brew] was last night's pain management tool of choice.  anyway, enough about pain.  I can't manage it, if I'm always dwelling on it.

Rosie's doing ok for an ol' stubborn dog.  I got her a new bed. there wasn't a price tag on it, but I figured it would be $30 tops.  my jaw hit the ground when the bar code scanned $58 (I know, right? a piece of foam and some cloth for 58 clams!).  I decide it's worth it 'cause who knows how long she'll be around (an argument that most would decide not to buy it, but what the hell...).  now she can be comfortable in her remaining days.  and right on cue, she has her nose resting on my leg letting me know it's time for that pooperdog walk.

my one day weekend consisted of a sixer of Schlitz, and a sixer of Polestar Pilsner (left hand brewing co., Longmont Co.).  the weather is in the high 50's so we take us an official barefoot pooperdog walk, just to say we did that in December.  overnight, I catch myself up on a bunch of Jon Stewart Daily Show(s).  weird dreams about being in a rock band followed (who knows why?  I can't 'splain my silly dreams).  sleeping most of today off, so I'll be alive and awake for the stalag...speaking of which, I best get ready here soon.

meanwhile, Brian grills T-bones and baked tators (that I had bought for him installing the new bathroom and kitchen sinks) on Saturday night, and brats, baked tators and broccoli on Sunday (mmmmms!).  I save a couple of 'em for tonight's lunch.  oh yeah...gotta get ready

well, we didn't hit the lotto, but it turns out that someone 25 miles from here got 5 of the 7(?) numbers winning a cool million, so maybe next time the luck will blow toward the lake shore.

news this morning that we have to work Friday makes me a bit mad.  I was looking forward to a "Real" weekend.  oh well. once again, I can pay down my debt faster, the more I rake in.  I do some online banking this morning, what, with it being payday and all.  subtract this months rent, save $150 for gas and food for the week, leaving $135 to make an extra payment toward the Kid loan ($1800 left to pay it off...I'm sure the money got spent a lot faster than I'm paying it off, but that's usually the way things work). 

I'm usually pretty tolerant of peeps I work with, but I had it up to here (holds hand level with crotch) with one of the guys on our line.  I have to work across the line from him, from time to time.  a good hour of his meowing, and bear growl style yawns drives me completely up a tree.  then he'll ask "does that bother you?".  my reply is "hell yeah it does...please stop!", simply to have him continue meowing and growling.  it's beyond mind bending.  the more you show your agitated, the more he'll pile it on.  finely, with about 5 minutes to go before rotating to the next station. I finally had it, and traded with someone else.  I haven't acknowledged his presence since.  he's gone on my "Jennifer" list (Jennifer being our hi-lo driver who was so bad at keeping our line stocked as a temp, they went and hired her full time.  she's stone cold unapologetic about her lack of caring whether we get our boxes on time or not.  so, I, out of disgust, choose not to acknowledge her existence either).  meanwhile, the two girls that we hired a month or two ago, are already gone.  it's hard to find anyone willing to bare that steep learning curve one has to fight through, learning every station, and all the machine glitches, etc.  it's hard on us trainers too, knowing someone prob'ly won't hang around after weeks of training.  it's most discouraging. 

Brian (almost neighbor/room mate) installs the kitchen sink that I had purchased online.  I also buy a replacement for the bathroom.  we'll put that in this weekend.

I get home, once again, not knowing if Rosie will be waiting for me on the porch (as usual). yep, she's there, wagging her tail as my headlights approach.  she's been showing huge signs of old age. one being she used to always poke her nose toward the hinged edge of the front door while I put her collar on for a walk.  the last couple 3 times, she pokes her head between the couch and the wall, then the trash can and the wall.  I think her cataracts are getting the better of her.  anyway, one day at a time. she's a damn army tank!  rock on pooperdog!!

currently, I'm relaxing (after McDonald's breakfast with a couple buds from work and a good pooperdog walk) with a bottle (or 2) of 'Backwoods Bastard' [Founder's brewing co] whilst scribbling nothings into my Xanga page.  it's a deliciously strong ale aged in oak bourbon barrels.

otherwise, I've got nothing more to type...

I've never joined a lotto club before.  me and 14 others from our line chip in the $2 to try and win a piece of that $400,000,000 (or whatever it's up to now?) power-ball lotto.  the drawing is tonight. wish us luck! 

I get little to no sleep today, due to Rosie wanting complete attention.  she's doin' ok, for a dog I thought I'd have to bury  7 times.  she's got more lives than Squab'.  she groans like an ol' man when she gets her ears and beer belly rubbed.  she hasn't tried beer (as far as I know).  maybe that's what's she's waiting for.  she can't go "home" without at least tasting the golden nectar of the Godz!  maybe I'll give her a little bowl of it this weekend...

nothing new at work.  it's still a 10 hour nightly drudge of a zombie walk, building car seats (blaH, blah) and hoping one of 15 sets of Lotto numbers match.   it's worth the $2 just to day dream about having a wood-panel submarine chalked with stacks of 55 gallon drums full of thousand dollar bills.  they tell me I have a 33% better chance of death by killer bees then to win the lotto.  oh well. I don't need to be a godzillion-aire, as long as Dodge Ram needs car seats, I'm doin' alright

man, what a difference a day makes!  Friday, I was washing and vacuuming out my shrimpy bat-mobile in 60 degree weather, the very next day it was a blustery half snowy one that even a small pooperdog walk in full winter gear was hard to endure...the pooperdog seems unfazed by the cutting wind.  I guess her new coat is doing the trick.  I hit McDonald's and the store this morning (after said walk) and spend a good $130 on groceries.  dude!  the price of food is going up!  I've heard it's due to that drought like summer we had...

[...]

Brian wanted to borrow my printer....I'm back.  where was my train of thought going?  ahhh.  *brain fart*

I gotta find me some more coffee anyway.  I'll be back to write more nothings as they occur

one more day before Thanksgiving break (4 days off!!) and the dog acts as if she's gonna kick the bucket (again).  it's about 1pm (my 1am) and she wakes me from my sleep trying, like a turtle flipped upside down, to roll over from her back on her big pillow, then she's complainin' about trying to stand up on her hind legs and commences to pee on her pillow. at this point I'm just huggin' her and crying (again) thinkin' this is really it (again)!  I carry her outside to her pillow on the porch and leave her on her chain (it being spring like mild out at the moment. the sun currently shining at an angle where she can cop a tan), then I fell back asleep and even dream-pt that she had died.  later, I hold my breath and go back outside only to find her being that perky waggidy tail dog ready to take that pooperdog walk.  this is maybe the 7th time she's pulled this false alarm.  I'll be all cried out when she really does go.  meanwhile, every day she wants to hang around is a huge plus.  I think she maybe wants to stick around for some Thanksgiving leftovers.  Brian (almost neighbor/room mate) is making a ham and stuffing.  I'm not a big holiday kind of guy, but I bought a pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce (since he's being nice enough to invite me to eat some of his grub).  fuel to watch the D'roit Lions lose to the Packers.... 

the weather's been back and forth from frosty cold to Indian summer.  I open a bunch of windows during the day while it's nice, then forget to close them at night when the weather dips.  it get's mighty cold, fast, in this wood-panel submarine.  good sleepin' weather with the right blanket.  I put Rosie's coat on, and Squabber hibernates under my covers.  it's supposed to get up into the 60's this weekend!  it may be nice enough to wash my shrimpy bat-mobile!

quick midnight online banking shows this weeks paycheck already deposited (shweet!).  after an allowance for my car payment, I see there's a good $255 "extra" to throw at paying down my Master Card (that's about a grand payed off within two months...it's getting gone, just gotta stay focused).  also Brian gives me rent for next month.  I'll deposit that on Friday, then quickly allocate most of it toward debt.

anywho, back to sleep, I go...I just thought I'd type me some nothings while the pooperdog does her thing outside

happy ham/GO-LIONS day!

testing, testing....

[...]

oh, good!  today 'windows 8' will let me upload an entry...maybe I was too quick to blame it.  it could have been an introweb connection problem.  who knows? doesn't matter. we're up and runnin' now.

I get on my coat, gloves, hat, put Rosie's coat and collar on, just to have her pull one of her ultra-rare moments when I can't even coax her off the porch with her favorite duck jerky.  alright, well, I guess we'll skip this walk.  I carry her down the steps so she can at least go pee, then carry her back up (she's gettin' way wobble on those porch stairs...she seems to sometimes forget that one extra step that you have to take from the porch into the wood-panel submarine too).  there are many different days that I'll project my own prognosis with "I give her 'till this weekend..." (for example) onto her simply by my observations of her wobbliness, just to have her keep on truckin' past said prognosis dates.  she's an army tank! I guess I gotta stop projecting my own end date and just enjoy having her around another day (which is pretty much what I'm doing anyway, so the whole point of this paragraph has turned to muddy cheesewiz).

burn some leftover coffee, sit down and write more nothingness whilst listening to pooperdog snore away...enjoyed a sixer of Frankenmuth Oktoberfest ale last night, whilst watching a movie (fock! cant remember the name! not 'deception'...'departure'?  some such word title with Leo Decaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nickelson, and a whole slew of other huge names.  pretty good flick! dammit!  what was it called?! *muddy cheesewiz brain fart*)

raked the yard last night, then helped Brian (almost neighbor/room mate) pick up a dresser for his bed room from the local second hand store.  he drove 'cause I had already had me some leaf raking brews.  he insists on texting and playing with apps on his phone while driving. I'm thinkin' I could be a lot less swervy, had I drove.  I tend to not mind peeps half paying attention, but we were using my truck, so as soon as I was about to say something, he put it down.  I guess those ads on the tube about someone getting brain damage from a texting accident aren't powerful enough, but then again, I've had two DUI's, after watching many a drunk driving ad, so my point, once again, is lost in a muddy cheesewiz shit swirl.

I honestly can't start another paragraph without thinking about the counter-point (at this point), so I'll close it up and make me a muddy cheesewis shit storm swirl sammich  *plan*

wait, one more pointless thing: online banking shows I'm still on the right track as far as paying down my loan/MC.  I gotta write down my accomplishments and hang it on the wall as a constant reminder to pick away at said debt. my original goal of getting it gone by the end of this year is unreachable (due to throwing money at my teeth and my vehicles).  maybe a new goal of, say, March will be my target (pending nothing else costs me an arm unt a leg 'til then).  now, onto that sammich...

one more more thing:  I best give a quick shout out to the Kid! what' up Scoob?  I do see you're still kickin' (judging by your facebook what-not's).  here's hopin' things are groove-chicken your way!

ok, one more more more thing: that isn't my car in foto on top. I was simply looking at Pontiac's forum about winter driving with a Solstice.  surprisingly there are many a response from winter drivers everywhere, who conclude they drive great, with the right snow tires (had I already bore you with this? maybe).  which makes me wanna go deeper into debt and get me a set of Blizzak's, but then again, the damn things cost a mint for this type of low profile dune buggy/shrimpy bat-mobile, so I'll maybe reconsider next fall and drive my shrimpy truck for a spell [....this sammich is delicious!  thank you Nutella *fart*]

wait!  one more more more more thing: yesterday, I had one of those completely debilitating style toofus  ("tooth", for the uninitiated) aches.  I called a local oral surgeon who said they could get me in that day! but I'd have to call the south side of town's office.  by the time I had written down the new number and hung up from the first call, the pain greatly subsided, but it's cool to know that if it happens again, I can jump right in and have it taken care of immediately.  if I hadn't already paid for this appointment on Dec 21'nd, I'd already have them toofus's taken care of.  oh well. I can wait...

good gawd!  I guess I had a lot to say about nothing....  maybe now I can convince the silly dog to go for that walk?

double damn!  I type up a whole dozen or so paragraphs of everything I've done over the past 2 weeks and for some reason 'Windows 8' swallowed it whole. so, I type a reader's digest version and re-save that.  BONK!  again...nothin'.  nice.  alright, move my ass to the kitchen laptop that has that stale 'Windows 7' still installed and see if I can't get kicked in the ass again.

[...] I just hit 'save' to make sure that paragraph would stick.  yup!  good!

recap of the reader's digest version:  nothing new, really.  got married had a baby, bought a house, vacationed in Kuala Lampur for the honeymoon.  wait...none of that happened.  it's the same old routine.  work, sleep, eat, pooperdog walks (lather, rinse, repeat).  I did almost break my pinky (rendering it 'purpley') by slamming it in the truck door.  turns out, you're not supposed to do that.  it's fine.  it just got a bit poofy and tender.  I survived.  otherwise nothing new.  working like a fiend. drinkin' a beer or 10 on my one day weekends (this weekend we actually get both days off!  hurray!).

[...]

shit~ I said a lot more nothings in the original draft, but the timer went off on  my oriental stir fry. 

you'd think with all our moonlit pooperdog walks (barefoot or otherwise) we (Rosie and I) would recognize more constellations. I mean the big dipper and Orion are easy, but what else is there? we're always half tripping over speed bumps whilst glaring upwards...I gotta find me a constellation chart.  I know, I've said this before, but this time my short attention span will not get distracted...

where'd I put my coffee cup? (dammit!)

my dentist visit (after 5 minutes of X-rays) revealed that there's a bit of infection involved with my broken tooth (common) and that both my bottom wisdom teeth will have to be extracted.  NICE!  the bill comes to over 1700 bucks (including my next cleaning), but with my insurance it was only $270.  they gave me some antibiotics and Vicodin prescriptions as well as set me up for said cleaning and extraction date.  it turns out the next available surgery date lands 3 days from Christmas.  I grabbed it. I'm not looking forward to this, but they'll knock me out during the procedure, so it ought to be somewhat more tolerable...

I buy me a 12'er of leinenkugel's (sp?) variety pack for the weekend, and don't do a whole lot but clean the wood-panel submarine (unt drink).  mostly uneventful and half filled with slack (that's a good thing after fitty hours of work).

the stalag has a couple new girls being added to the line.  it's about time!  we run skeleton crew way too often.  the girl I'm training is pretty cool. she's picking the routine up pretty fast.  what bothers me is she'll talk a lot in the tiniest voice. I can only catch about a quarter of what she says over the loudness of the machines/alarms.   each station is equipped with an annoying alarm that goes off after so many seconds, letting you know that you're assembling the part at that station too slow.  each chair comes down a roller line on a pallet and gets assembled from station 2 (load) to station 31 (unload).  anyway, long story longer, it's annoying trying to train/listen over this alarm system. I wish there was an over ride for new peeps until they get the hang of it, then there's our line support who constantly pushes (which is another annoyance in itself). he has little patience for newbies. he must not remember how steep of a learning curve it was when he was new....

wait, what am I doing awake?!  g'night

8pm to midnight tonight and I have the rest of the weekend off (due to putting in for a half of a vacation day at the end of our Friday)! our line had broken down for a good 3 hours near the end of last nights shift, so it's prob'ly inevitable that the rest of the shift will have to work one of the weekend days (sorry for ya!).  everyone pretty much cleaned and made sub-assembly parts while we were down.  with the occasional few -including me for maybe 15 minutes- working on a different line.  we had a Halloween pot luck which consisted of mostly cold pizza and warm pop.  I brought seafood salad and cranberry sauce which totally clashed with the main course.  turns out no one told me it was a pizza style potluck.  oh well. what didn't get eaten, I brought home...which I'm having a bowl of now (seafood salad, that is.  along with a LandShark Lager.  mmmmmmmmmmms!  breakfast of not-so-champions)

I make an appointment for the dentist Friday at 8am.  so far I'm impressed with how they handle their business.  an email confirmation with the date and time along with a link to get the PDF's of all the forms I'll have to fill out and print, so as I can do them here at home and bring them in with me, instead of agonizing over them from a clipboard in the waiting room, wondering why I didn't bring more information with me (which happens often).  the pain of my broken toof has subsided greatly, but as much as I don't care for the idea, I'm going in anyway.  good gawd, I don't like the dentist~!

I buy Rosie (who is still kickin' amazingly) a winter coat.  I should have brought her with me to size it, but I just eyeballed it and called it good.  it's a little small, but it'll do the trick.  she seems to dig it.  I have pictures, but this new Windows 8 doesn't yet want to recognize my SD card (or anything "external").  maybe I'm missing a simple driver of some sort. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough.  oh yeah, I had mentioned that I had given up on 'Windows 8' in a past entry.  I had a brain fart that maybe it was simply because everyone and his brother was trying to download the damn thing on that first day of release, causing it to crash...I tried it again at about 2:30 in the morning. this time it worked.  I like it!  it's somewhat different, although there still is an old school desktop like 'Windows 7' had, but the new part resembles what you'd maybe find more commonly on a smart phone.  a screen covered in apps that you can customize etc.  the screen is set up for a touch screen computer, but works fine as well with the mouse.  initially, I didn't know what all the hype was about, but the more I play with it and customize it to my liking, the more I like it.

cold, windy, sleety, grey weather lately.  highs in the low 40's for the rest of the week.  here comes ol' man winter [soon].  anyway, I'm gonna make another attempt at downloading some type of driver that'll help me upload pics from my camera, etc.... *Belch!*

minutes later:  oh snap!  it's just a matter of rebooting my 'puter while the 'external drive/SD card' is plugged in. the fresh reboot then searches for the drivers for said thingers. thanks intro web for the suggestion!

now, if I can maybe apply a suitcase handle on the mid-back of her coat, I could grab and lift that to help her up the stairs

yay!  5-10 hour days with the weekend off!  awesome! yesterday, I was zooming around to and from work, back and forth to the store with the top down on the dune buggy.  it was 70's and sunny style weather. contrast that with chilled up 40's today (with highs in the low fitty's), with the wicked look of snow clouds making it feel like our Indian summer done came and went.  I still gotta bust out that rake. I'm sure I'll have time within these next few slack days off...

so today Microsoft unleashes it's 'Windows 8' upgrade.  being I had bought a 'puter within a certain timeframe, I'm eligible for a good discount on said upgrade, yet when I downloaded the windows 8 manager program, filled in my personal info along with my credit card info, I got an error message, of which I typed into google, returning many results from peeps with the same problems.  I guess Microsoft doesn't want my money.  fine! I'll stick with 7.  I hate that kind of anticipation, only to be shot down by an error message. it's most discouraging. oh well. 7 rocks too.

my broken toof is giving me hella-pain. I knew it would had I not resolved to call the dentist in time.  it's after 9am now. I best give 'em a holler and set up a thinger.  good gawd, I loathe dentists like the plague, but this pain isn't pleasant either...

Rosie vies for my attention while I type.  must be she's gotta go potty [...]

the stars are especially bright  on our cool 4am pooperdog walk.  two sweatshirts make the coolness bearable. it won't be long before I'll need to bust out my winter jacket. I pretty much trade places with my vehicles, being that I'll drive my truck more during the winter, I park my shrimpy batmobile at my room mates mom's house, and park my truck in my driveway (it's been the opposite being I used the batmobile more this summer). I'll keep both insured in case we have another mild winter.  I take the 70 lb sand bags from the shed and throw them in the back of the truck for weight (in case we don't have a mild winter)...soon, I'll bust out the snow blower and park it in front of the porch (chained and locked to the porch, of course, in case anyone gets the wise idea of stealin' it). gotta pick me up a bag of road salt to store on the porch as well.  now, where did I store my mittens and boots?  some broom closet somewhere, I suspect.

it's been rainin' forever so I haven't been able to bust out my rake.  the yard is awash in fruit loop tree leaves. plus, we worked [stalag] a good 60 hours this week, so time to do anything, including drinking, cleaning, etc.,  has all but gone out the window.  the good news is we still are able to get at least 2 pooperdog walks in per day.  she's doin' good for a silly old mutt.  I thought I had lost her a week or two back, but now I wonder if she'll outlive me.  she's a damn army tank with brittle hips and cataracts. Brian (room mate) makes up past  war stories about her...he's got a creatively silly imagination. 

last night I watch a bit of football. Michigan beats MSU in the last minutes of the game. drinking a sixer of various microbrewage, and making some black beans unt rice mit ground turkey meat (mmmmmmmmmmms!) for supper.  it's my only day off this week, so I play a little PS3 (bioshock 2, dead space 2, etc), and catch up on the past weeks worth of 'the Daily Show with Jon Stewart',  'the Colbert Report', and 'Peep Show/that Mitchell and Webb look' via Hulu.com (or is it Netflix...?).  it's been a good one day weekend, but now I gotta try and get a good 8 hours of sleep before tonight's stalag stint.

...speaking of the stalag. we lose another member of our team.  first it was Lew, then Ashley, now Amanda...gone.  we got 1 replacement (Jessica), but she didn't show up to work on Friday night.  our team has been a skeleton crew before losing these peeps.  oh yeah, did I mention our new boss (how many does that make within the past year or two? 6-7?  I lost count). anyway, sleeeeeeeeeep! 

10 hour work days for these past 5, told on our way out that we had another 10 for Saturday, only to come home, take a nap, and find out through facebook that Saturday's stalag stint had been cancelled [hoooray!].  showered, ran to the beer store for a sixer of  microbrew and a back-up sixer of Schlitz, stopped off to Subway for a meatball maranara sub (sharing a couple of meatballs with the silly dog), then came home and rented 'Prometheus'.  pretty cool flick!  nice twist at the end where...oops, nope. you almost got me to spoil it.  rent it. it's good!

my toof still gives me pain here and there. one day I'll get the nerve [pun] to call the dentist.  good gawd. the idea of someone ripping out the other broken half is enough to make me run. I've never liked going to the dentist. seems every time I went there'd be another cavity to fill.  the smell of that smoke as he bore down on tooth, and the whine of the drill (yeah, you know the rest...RUN!!), but then again, I can't wait 'til this gets infected.  that would be 23.2 times worser

pooperdog and I just got back from a rainy walk.  it's a mild rain, so not too uncomfortable. I'm starting to dread the thought of those blustery frozen days where the wind cuts thru your coat like a damn knife, meanwhile the silly dog seems hugely unaffected by it, stopping to make snow angels in the drifts...but that's not for another couple months (unless we have an unusually warm winter like last year).  currently it's just cooler, and windier with a lot of fruit loop tree leaves on the ground.  it's supposed to be rainy all weekend.  maybe I'll just hang out with my beerses and my PS3 and continue on with 'Bioshock 2', 'far cry 2', 'bullet storm', etc.  I pre-ordered 'doom 3 BFG edition'. it's 3 games in one for the price of one.  I do dig those beer goggled nights in the past (on the PS1) playing doom for hours at a time.  awesome!

I guess I should take some time to clean the wood-panel submarine as well, but first I need to make me a pot of joe...

an ultra tense day at work, knowing that I'd prob'ly come home to a dead dog. the night before she was convulsing something fierce.  I'm thinkin' I'll have to bring her in to be put down after work, if she isn't already gone.  I do breakfast with Mark (friend from the stalag), then hold my breath thinking I'm ready to face the music. am I just keeping her around for my own selfishness.  she can't tell me she's suffering....but, once home, she's seems fine.  I give her the biggest hug ever, and have been monitoring her ever since for more signs.  I'm wondering if she just had a reaction to the flea stuff I put on her back that day. I told Brian about the situation and he says his cats have similar twitchy reactions.  holy crap!  and here I thought she was gonna die!  she's still a feeble old girl, so I mix in some aspirin with her moist food.  she's doin' a lot better than I expected this weekend.  I was on the edge of crying all friday night, just thinking about not having her around.  here's hopin' she hangs around for a while longer.  she's the coolest porch sittin'/ beer drinkin' companion I've had in a long time.

someone's already got their wood stove fired up.  I can smell it in the air (being that I'm currently porch sittin'/beer drinkin' with my pooperdog friend).  I should consider a back up heater (as I do every time this year) in case the power goes out and it's fitty below.  a kerosene heater would be ideal.  t'would be a good "just in case" item.  I'll look 'em up online here soon.

just got back from hittin' Arby's for lunch and gettin' my hair cut, all the while listening to NPR's 'this american life', etc.  then I stop by my favorite beer store for a 12'er of Schlitz.  tonight Brian says he's gonna make some chicken fajitas (Mmmms!).  last night he grilled pork and made some cheesy rice throwing in a movie called 8MM (nick cage).  I was pretty plowed by the end of the movie and couldn't figure out how to restart it (after turning it off for a pee break).  Brian got a flustered by my attempts, but wouldn't take the remote to do it himself. he ranted on for a long time as I was trying to figure it out.  pretty soon I stopped paying attention to my actions and started laughing at his.  he would not quit barking and ranting, nor would he take the remote.  after minutes more of this circus act, I just gave up and went to bed.  I never did see the end of the movie, but I can pretty much fill in the blanks, being a typical nick cage movie, and all.

so, about a month ago, I had just enough beers in me, during one our barefoot pooperdog walks, to throw one of Rosie's poop bags on top of Benny's car (Benny is that guy that borrowed 21 bucks and a ride to the beer store, and never paid it back...I believe I told the story back when).  it happens to be a hatch back of some sort, and the bag of shit soon became lodged between where the hatch lifts and the car itself.  seems Benny must not have noticed it right away.  he must have discovered it here lately, I no longer see a plastic bag sticking out of the hatch.  he prob'ly has a good idea who placed it there, being we walk past his house at least twice a day.

tonight's the big rumble betwixt Jon Stewart and Bill O'riely (sp?). it'll be aired live at 8pm online. I dig these guys debating more than any presidential mudslinging.

anyway, I ran out of beer, and I best go plug this 'puter into the wall before the 'bat low' light comes on...

seems all my reading glasses, much like my coffee cups did to my shrimpy truck, migrate into my vehicle.  I still can't find the newest most expensive pair [once in awhile, I'll go grocery shopping and completely forget to bring my glasses, so I'll pick up a pair to buy and walk around with them on, with the tag still on the nose piece. ya know. just to be that dork].   I do leave them on the top of the couch once in awhile, maybe they fell behind it?  I normally can think out loud as I'm trying to find them, and if Brian's around, he'll shout out exactly where they are. usually ending his sentence with "...along with your other shit!", which usually consists of maybe an empty beer bottle and my MP3 player.  did I mention he's a neat freak?  anything out of place and he'll let me know.  even though it's my house, and he's the one paying the cheap rent.  that's good though, compared to living with the opposite...

we go to work 2 hours early last night (as we have been all week), just to run out of rails and get to leave early.  it's a jacked up place (as I'm sure you have a clue by now)! our new supervisor seems pretty cool (so far). he's not been around to introduce himself to us yet. prob'ly because he knows the high turn-over routine and wants to see if he can make it thru the first week without getting fired or moved somewhere else. otherwise, nothing new. pooperdog walks in the rain, sleep, work (rinse, repeat).

gotta cook me up some hambooger helper for tonight's lunch [ready, GO!]

a whole week goes by without entering any bland blahgage.  nothing new at the stalag.  the same old frustrations along with losing another 2 supervisors.  yep, I said two! D left midweek to work days, so Justin from track 3 jumped in. current rumors now say that Justin is out and we get a new guy by the name of Eric (who starts tonight).  revolving door supervisors and problems with the machinery still plague our line.  yesterday, one of our screw guns broke and the scanner (to print labels with)  had died.  just another day at the smoke factory.  we're currently working 10 hour days again [dammit!  I like 8's!].  why do we keep going backwards?! it's frustrating.  next thing ya know we'll be sucked right back into 12's.  fockin' stalag anyway.

online banking throws an extra payment of $39 toward my Kid loan.  the extra payments are tinier now that we only work 40's, but the debt is ever so slowly going back in the right direction.  down.  that money spent to repair both vehicles is the big hurtle to pay down...no worries a penny here and a penny there toward debt, with that watchful eye on spending, will get 'er done. with these debts gone, over time, I'll be able to free up a good $225/month to put towards [...] whatever debt I accrue in the future.  again, the new "rich person" is the one who tries to keep himself out of debt, during shitty economic times like this. I've tasted the goodness of being debt free once, I want it again in a bad way...

man, this place is so quiet when Brian (almost neighbor/room mate) is at work.  he brings the tension by talking way too loud  (HEY!  INDOOR VOICE!) and being rude to my animals. waking them up and calling them goofy Hawaiian names.  I keep trying to impress on him that the dog is old, let her sleep, but he's right back at it, playing rough and being rude.  unfortunately, he'll have a lot of time off again here when he goes back in for knee surgery.  anyway, he gives me half the rent and promises the rest next week.  he used to be real good at paying a week or two in advance, but as long as he's still paying, I'm good with it all. he continues to mow the lawn and bar-b-que pork for us, so all is good

otherwise, nothing new under the sun; beer drinkin' slack dawg weekend watching the lions lose, mixed with work, barefoot pooperdog walks during the week.  it's all groove-chicken

rainy all weekend long, but that doesn't dampen the beer drinkin'/football watchin' situation.  a 12'er of Oktoberfest (Sam Adams)  and a whole lotta football to watch makes for a great crappy weather weekend!

yesterdays stalag stint is the second work day in a row that we all got farmed out to other lines.  must be Dodge Ram sales dropped off big time.  here we went from none stop 10 and 12 hour days to completely having the line down.  it's weird.  oh well. I worked on Toyota's line unloading product into packaging all day.  Friday I was on Kia Sorento's  line making vertical motor brackets.  here's hopin' we work our own line tonight.  I don't mind being farmed out, but I'd rather not do other lines EVERY night.  it'll prob'ly feel good to get back into the old grind...

took my pooperdog for a walk, and got asked by the neighbor (Rich) if I could drive him to the gas station.  seems his brakes feel squishy and he needs some brake fluid.  sure!  whilst down there, I grab me a Sobe Pina Calada drink and a sweet onion chicken sub (being there's a Subway located inside the gas station).  Rich comes up to me while I'm ordering and says this gas station doesn't carry brake fluid.   what?!  what gas station doesn't have brake fluid on hand??  anyway, we head towards town and find one that did.  on the way back (keep in mind this guy's 87 years old) he tells me his first car was an 1906 Overland Whippet. he then goes on to explain how many Model T's he's had, etc.  he's the same guy that told me of his WWII tour of duty as a flame thrower gunner mounted on a tank (somewhere in Japan if I remember correctly...I do believe I expounded on this story in an earlier entry).  after talking about his cars, he went on to tell me some stories about his days as a carny, then a policeman, and the girls he banged as a younger man during these times (haha!! it's funny to here about sexual rants from a guy who's been around for ever).  anyway, I told him he should write a memoir.  I'd buy a copy.  he's an interesting old geezer, to say the least.

I prob'ly got more nothingness to write about, but I should get in a quick power-nap before tonight's stalag stint...

the second week in a row that we didn't even have to work 40 hours!!  I know!  UNDERTIME!  awesome!  my check is cut in about half, but that's ok...I can breathe again! I re-figure my budget to reflect new income.  seems I only need $277/week for everything (rent, car payment, bills, etc...excluding food, gas for the car/truck, beer, MC payment).  I can work this out and have time to slack!  good gawd, with the old 10's and 12 hour work days/ 5, 6, 7 days a week, I was truly in a complete zombie state. (did I mention, I can breathe again?!  I think I did). during some of my down time, I play me a bit of Crysis 2 (PS3).  it's the coolest game ever [alright, one of the top 10 coolest games ever, being there are a ton of cool ass games for the PS3]!  the graphics and soundtrack suck you into it's otherworldliness.  the weapons and bio-suit are intuitively over the top! it's an awesome game! I dig it the most!

another sweet deal is, Xanga can now be archived in a zip form, including pictures and comments, so I can download the contents onto my password protected safe on my new 'puter [awesome!], so if Xanga were to ever totally collapse, I have a complete copy of my journal tucked away, for purposes of archiving said bland bloggage, complete with 3/4 naked, 1/2 my age desktop girl pics (for the visually unbland part).

I keep track of the Kid on his facebook page.  I'm guessin' things are cool(?)  looks like he co-wrote some sort of screen-play. cool! here's hopin' it's not some sort of anti-Islamic movie that had been posted on Youtube. 

Rosie's still kickin'.  her eye's are a bit foggier, and she sleeps a bit longer, but she's a damn army tank, who still loves to get her ears rubbed with a groaning appreciation, and loves her now shorter 1/2 MPH barefoot pooperdog walks (as do I).  good dog Rosie! keep on, keepin' on!  Squab'. he'll be around for another 10 years, I'm thinkin'.  he'll get twice the love when Rosie's gone, whether he likes it, or not.  Rock on, Squab'

anyway, I just got a package from UPS for Brian (some fanci-fied knee brace), so now I gotta hit the rack, so I'm alive tonight to drown in some microbrew [HELLO WEEKEND!].

ready? slack!

gummi pflege stift my Pontiac (yeah, that's the name of that rubber seal restorer stuff).  there's a ton of rubber on a convertible! then I washed the shrimpy batmobile whilst Brian grilled some T-bones and tators (mmmmmmmmmms!).  wash that down with a sixer of pumpkin ale, and watch the movie "the Fighter" tops off the beginning of the weekend. *cheers...BELCH!*

an early barefoot pooperdog walk, a bowl of toofus busting grape nuts, a couple cups of coffee, and I'm ready to start this day...it looks like a good one!

ok, one more desktop of Dani Mathers to make a bland bloggage more visually appealing

YAY!! the car's fixed!  and it only cost about half of what the dealer had invoiced me for, for the "fix" that they claim that they did!  awesome! I pay for it by phone, and have them lock the keys in it, to be picked up tonight before work.  there, it took me all summer, but I got both vehicles in tip top order.  next thing to fix is this damn broken toofus (tooth).  it doesn't hurt at all, but I'm sure if I let it go, it'll cause problems down the way.

we had a horrible night  (as far as numbers go) at the stalag.  the machine was acting all Christine [Steven King reference] on us.  we may have made around 300 good parts.  our goal was 850.  oops!  the day shift only did around 560, so they missed big time too, not to mention (but I will anyway) the down time we had these past couple days due to packaging, etc.  I'm thinkin' we'll be working this weekend, but who knows?  our boss says the orders from the customer fell right off, so maybe not? [news at 11]

that's about it. a pooperdog walk shall be had here shortly.  looks like rain, so maybe we'll sneak one in before the sky falls too hard

seeing a slight up-tick in visitor traffic, prob'ly because I mentioned the words 'Playboy' and 'Dani Mathers' in recent posts (there, I mentioned them again.  we'll see if the hits go up exponentially).  I order a snow blower cover (did I mention this?) online, thru Cub Cadet's webpage ($38).  it ought to be easier to use than that silly flat tarp I bungee corded on last winter.

we get farmed out, last night, to different lines.  I work track 2 line, where one can find many o' pretty girl.  believe it or don't, there are a lot of cute girls that work in this fucking dump.  I have no idea why?!  anyway, it's cool to work with and chat whit 'em. one, in particular, named Cari-anne is one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen (honestly!).  we talk about her quitting in a couple weeks and finding a part time job, being that she's engaged to be married in 9 months (I can only assume it's a shot gun wedding, but she's not showing, if that's the case?).  it's fun!  tonight, we start at 10pm, so this morning, I'm having me a beer (or two) with my bowl of Grape Nuts.

here's hopin' they give me a call on my Pontiac today...I'm dying to know how much it'll cost to fix?  they haven't even given me an estimate yet.    it'll be good to drive it without that yellow glowing engine light shining from the dash. once again, it'll be good to have 2 sets of wheels to get around on

Brian says he has this week off as well, due to his hand surgery...I wonder if that boy has a job AT ALL?!  oh well.  not my concern. as long as he makes rent, all is good

OK, one more beer...

Brian borrows my phone the other day, openly mocking it's stone age dis-functionality and saying he likes when it beeps when you press the numbers, then dials his fancy smart phone provider to completely rip on 'em about his crappy phone and bad service. I laugh at the guys silly logic often.  another example is "I know there's a god, there's proof!  they found Noah's Ark!"  hahah....!! silly man-boy!  anyway, he runs my phones minutes down to about 2 left.  I hit the phone's web-page to re-up more air time, but the webpage is down for maintenance, so I'm stuck with two minutes to burn to call the mechanic with.  I jump in the shrimpy truck and head down there instead (my favorite beer store is just around the corner, and I do have the night off, so, what the hell?!).  long story, longer; the mechanic tells me that whoever worked on my car last didn't do a damn thing that was printed on the invoice (sound familiar?...I was wondering if the dealer had even opened my hood back when they charged me for my deductible). I tell him to ignore what they did (or didn't do), and fix it...he tells me either it's the mass air flow [what's-it] or bad wiring to said [what's-it].  he'll call today on an estimate.  once home I notice the phone's website is up, so I order me a good 400 minutes ($39), and using the phone as little as I do, that ought to last a good 5 months.

we got your typical "if you guys get 850 [in this case] parts within 8 hours, we'll work an 8 hour day for the rest of the week.  we make about 820 some mostly due to machine downtime.  the good news is that it used to be "we must make 1050 (bumped up to 1150) per day..." no matter how long it takes, so it must be Dodge Ram sales are finally slowing down.  so I figure we'll be working 10's for the week.  I get a couple 'missed calls' on my phone (checking because my car is still at the mechanics). a voice mail is my mechanic with a question, and another (surprisingly) is the stalag, saying our line doesn't have to show up for last night, due to some packaging issues.  AWESOME! so, I wash and wax my shrimpy truck, whilst drowning in some pumpkin ale (mmmmmmmmmmms!).  Mark (dude from my shift) stops by (on his way to the golf course) to make sure that I'm aware of the day off (he knows how little I pay attention to my phone...and if not for the whole car being at the mechanic thang, I might indeed have missed it).   I watch Monday Night Football thru mostly closed eyes and snores, but wake up to watch the second game's last half (the Raiders were gettin' killed by the Chargers), followed by a moon lit barefoot pooperdog walk.  crashing for a bit, then start today off with another walk.  the ol' girl has moments of puppy dog enthusiasm mixed in with her bouts of old age.  this mornings walk was very much a puppy version...she's since slept the hours away like the snoring old lady usually does.

my cool next door neighbors, in the trailer directly to my east, suddenly (and without warning) move out! just a single couple in their 30's. they were the coolest and quietest.  their dogs were a bit noisy, but dogs will be dogs.  here's hopin' whoever moves in next will be just as laid back.  my luck it'll be a family of 9 loud and rude rug-rats [news at 11]

there!  now both vehicles are gleaming of Carnoba wax in all their forest green goodness. I take pictures because next week they'll be back to their normal dirt bomb state also, a pic of Squab' and Rosie hangin' on for dear life as the wood-panel submarine dives...