a small pooperdog walk and some bacon and franch toost start off the day (Rosie loves Franch toost!).  I'm feelin' a bit better (especially knowing that I don't  have to deal with the stalag until Monday night!).  I'm not sure if it's the meds, or what? but I have been farting an awful lot.  maybe it's the anti bionics chewing away at the virus and converting it into noxious fume clouds (I'm sure any doctor will tell you the same).  anyway.  I haven't eaten a whole lot during these past couple days. I'm (just today) getting my appetite back.  coffee still tastes like gack.  maybe I shouldn't reuse my dirty sock as a filter.  otherwise, nothing new.  I gotta make a run to the trailer park office and drop off this months rent,  then more pooperdog walks and sleep...

so this is odd...I'm ready to throw my tracfone in the trash.  I can't seem to activate it online (why it says "inactive" is kind of weird anyway), and it's had problems in the past where no one could hear me on the damn thing anyway.  just before chuckin' it, I try a number in my contact list.  autozone. "thank you for calling autozone, can I help you?",  "...how are you?" I say, waiting for the "hello? hello?" response that I normally get. "I'm fine, how are you?" HOLY SHIT, MY FONE WORKS!! i was so excited that I didn't know what to say.  when I came to, I just asked him when they closed.  he told me, then I hung up.  why does my fone work?  after all the headaches I've had in the past with it, now it decides to work?!  unbelievable! I call the Squatch and catch up with him, then I call the Med center (the very one I hit yesterday) and asked if it's possible to extend my excused days off?  the thought of doing 2-12 hour days this weekend, breathing weld dust and burning paint marker (from checking welds) didn't sound at all appealing to a throat that's been through hell with this bronchitis shite, plus if I got the extension, I could actually watch the Packers beat the Stealers this Sunday (the real answer always comes second).  the doc agrees and writes me an excused absence on a prescription sheet for the weekend.  I then call my work, and let them know I won't be in for the weekend, then make a quick run to the med center to pick up said excused absence...blah, blah.

I sleep off most of the day in little blocks, and of course I dream about work.  currently I just have an irritated throat, and the sniffles, so things are getting better.  the mucus manufacturing factory in my head is slowing down production (finally!).  anyway. off to do some more slackin'.  maybe watch a Netflix movie and find something to eat...

the pooperdog and I take a 1 am walk.  it was a still night.  the stars were perdy.  there was another dude walking his basset hound.  the cutest little naked puppy ever.  he must have been a couple weeks old, then right around the corner there's another neighbor using his snow blower (IT'S 1 O'CLOCK IN THE DAMN MORNING).  that's more neighbor traffic than what I see during most days. it's about 6am right now.  she's prob'ly about due for another walk-about.

had me some restless blocks of sleep last night.  it seems this medicine is making it worse, but I'm assuming it's just the antibionics attacking the moronics (I gots plenty of those).  meanwhile, I'm going thru Kleanex and blowing my nose with toilet paper like they were made outta trees.  let's see, it's been since 11:30 since I had taken my last codeine hit, it says 'every 6 hours' on the bottle, so I'm thinkin' it's time [pause for Kleanex/codeine shot on the rocks with an olive on a tiny plastic sword].  coffee tastes nasty (still).  listening to a radio station called 'nature' on Pandora.com.  it's sort of native american flute with sounds of rain and birds in the background.  I crank it beyond distortion for some relaxing sleep (no I didn't, silly). 

I'm thinkin' since I have another day off, I should attack my taxes.  it looks like I have all me 1099's and w2's and what not, so why not?  pooperdog is currently growlin' at me.  either she needs out, or she wants pettin'.  I'll put this away and do both...

I'm in complete denial by convincing myself that I'm totally done with this stupid cold...meanwhile, I'm having sneezing fits (that Rosie barks at, which is odd), 20 minute cough-a-thons that wake me up from a dead sleep (feels like I'm drowning), and untold amounts of gloobage from my sinus cabbages, along with hackin' up yellowy brown goobers *gack!*.  it's a rerun of my "throat crack" days from a year or two back.  maybe I need some antibionics? I take last night off, mostly because of the main road leading to the trailer park still hadn't been plowed,  but spent most of it in my own little ICU with Theraflu and Kleanex by my side, layin' on the couch, watchin' Netflix.  it's not fun! I ponder going to the med center today (pending road is plowed), but then I gotta work tonight, and the place doesn't open 'til 10am (which will cut into most of my sleep time before heading to the stalag).  I also ponder giving  my temp agency a call and giving them my 2 days notice (one only needs to give 2 days notice and keep in good standing).  that way, I still get 48 hours in this week...it's a bad time to quit any job, but I'm dyin' here.  it's decision time.  but first sleeeeep.

later:  just after writing the above paragraph, I started gettin' mad at myself.  stop pissin' around and go see the doctor, dumb ass (I'm usually 3/4's dead before I get the help that I need. it's a guy thing, I'm told)! I take a shower, and split for the med center (I'm happy to see they've finally plowed the main drag).  since I got there right at 10am, it was a short wait.  a quick explanation of my symptoms, a couple of tests and the doc determines that I have Bronchitis, and should stay out of work for a couple days 'cause I still could be contagious ( shiggity shweet!).  he writes me a note to give to my boss excusing those days.  I drop it off at my temp service (hoping that I don't spread the plague to them...), then head to the store to get 3 prescriptions filled.  some cherry flavored codeine elixir concoction, a zee pack (I think he called it) of anti-moronics, and some nasal spray.  the doctor visit cost 100 bones, the prescriptions totaled $93!  so far it's a $193 cold (not counting the 2 days worth of wages I've taken off so far, plus the two days I'm going to take off, today and tomorrow).  oh well. getting this fixed may even change my mind about dumping the job.  I'm thinkin' work will be a ton less burdensome without the zombie crud-head feel.  I'm glad the doc gave this thing a name and some powerful meds to go with it.  here I thought I was just being a wuss (that's how you spell "wuss") about a silly cold... I can't remember what feeling "normal" is.  it's been that long. I'm sure it'll take a couple days for the anti-demonics to kick in, but I'm back on the right track none the less

so, for no apparent reason, now I can upload fotos....weird! here's the lowdown on my crash damage.  the windows and mirror have since been replaced, the leaf springs fixed, the dents remain as "now my truck has character" marks.  the Minnesota like weather hadn't arrived yet either, as you can see...

what the heck?!?!  I went into work driving in Michigan winter conditions, I come out 12 hours later to see Minnesota has stopped by for a visit (hoohah?!)!  the snow is incredibly deep! now working in town has it benefits, there's snow plows everywhere, so I was fine for 3/4's of the drive home, it was the rural route that divides two counties, neither taking claim for the road, so neither plow it.  it was a damn two track with drifts almost as tall as the truck (alright, well, I got a shrimpy truck, but you get the idea).  naturally, it wasn't two sets of two tracks, and of course there was an SUV confidently heading my way in the same wagon wheel ruts. I nervously gun the gas and swerve using one of the ruts, he does the same.  it takes everything I have and some shattered teeth (from said nervous jaw clampage) to pull out of the snow and back into the the ruts once I had passed.  it was white knuckle driving for a good couple of miles.  unbelievable! there was no stopping or you'd be "dead in the water" (weird figure of speech).  I was able to unclench my jaw once I hit the plowed roads of the trailer park itself (thank you, grilled cheesus!).   I park in the road, quick let the pooperdog out so she can decompress.  she quickly follows my footsteps into the deep snow toward the road, ready to go for a walk,  just to turn around, just as fast, when the snow got up over her head.  it was kinda funny.  she decides to do her thing under the porch.  she pretty much watches as I take a good 45 minutes to dig an aisle way just big enough for the truck to fit, then I jump in, and ram the truck into the driveway, sort of hoping it lodges in, so as I can use that as an excuse to miss work tonight.  it doesn't get stuck (dammit!), I tell ya what though, if I drive to work, and the main rural route still isn't  plowed, I'm turning right back around and staying home...it's not worth flippin' her in the ditch again.  I warn my new neighbors across the road, who were busy digging their car out of their driveway whilst I was diggin' mine in.  good luck duders!

now to have a bowl of cereal, and take me a nap

worked a 12'er yesterday.  3/4's of it checking welds, the rest of the time in the "good job" dept. working with a refreshingly rude person (more on him later).   came home, did a quick pooperdog walk (3 bagger), then hit the rack for the best uninterrupted sleep I've had in a long time! I think this cold that's been killin' me the past 2 weeks (plus) is finally subsiding...oh damn [looking at the clock], I gotta get ready for another fun filled evening at the stalag...

spent most of last night catching up on the 'Jon Stewart' shows that I've missed, plus went grocery shopping at 3:30am.  the store was riddled in half empty boxes, skids and skid trucks as the employees restocked the shelves.  some isles were impossible to go thru with a cart.  I wish I had a camera. it looked like something straight out of a post apocalyptic movie.  I had to share the main isles with floor scrubbers, and polishers.  that place is surprisingly alive with workers stocking, hauling, cleaning (maybe I should apply for a job there).  I got me about $90 in groceries (it's good to have milk and eggs again...I completely forgot to grab some bread.  dumbass!).  I crash out 'round 6:30am only to wake up with a monster cough-a-thon 'round 9:30am.  I do my regular routine of Theraflu, a cough drop, and this time a sleeping pill so I can conk back out for another 6-7 hours before hitting the stalag.  I feel it's effects now.  I'm gonna go lay down....

day six of  10 to 12 hour days slaving at 'stalag see holz', and I'm draggin' ass (in the beer/orgy dept) about 3/4 of the way through the night (as per normal). I try and avoid anyone who may let me know that Sunday is mandatory (the bulletin board still says "maybe...").  if I can only get through the day without anyone (officially) letting me know, I'll take that as a 'day off'.  it took some bobbing and weaving, but I was able to avoid anyone from the weld dept, as well as supervisor peeps all the way to when I punched out.  I still didn't feel comfortable until I was safely into my truck (i felt as if I were escaping from jail).  I'm also comfortable about using the lack of communication (that this place is known for) as a  way to spin my own conclusion (I think a lot of peeps play this here).  the rumors about working 12 hours 3 weeks straight continue.  I haven't heard officially, but it's prob'ly gonna happen.  anyway.  I get home, take a short nap, broken up by a cough-a-thon (ala the good ol' 'throat crack' days.  seems I can't shake this latest cold). I get up, do some over the counter meds to quell this crappy cold shit, .  I've been sleeping/working for so long that I don't find time to clean.  I bust out the vacuum and broom, do a ton of dishes and laundry, clean counters, and appliances, then stop for a bologna spaghetti break (it's the only thing left in the fridge).  then I have one of those moments (again) when I realize that all that I'm doing is breaking my back at the stalag, and sleeping (with the occasional pooperdog walk).  I'm not eating right, not sleeping (enough), not finding time off to get healthy (from this cold that should have left a week ago), the house is trashed due to neglect, the dog is suffering (having to hold it for 13 hours a day), too many things don't feel right about being a slave at the stalag.  don't get me wrong. I don't mind hard work, but hard work for 12 hours, many days in a row equals my demise (actually, I'm surprised this job lasted as long as it has, but then again, I've had some days off up until now).  I gotta find me an 8 hour stint somewhere.  or even a 10 to 12 hour/4 day a week thing.  is there such an animal anymore? I don't need all this overtime.  seems whoever I talk to at work, most are in it for the money (some even volunteer over and above...).  I'm not in that camp. time off to clean and slack is more valuable to me. I want so badly to have a full weekend to do nothing important.  just hang, clean, and maybe catch up on the TV (hulu.com).  I long for those days where I didn't have to work at all. I don't need to go that extreme, but some time off would be good.  anticipating the horrors of working 3 straight weeks of 12 hour days is worse than what I'd imagine a real prison camp would be...I'll try and ride out what I can, but if my health, and home go down the drain, I'm throwing in the towel.  this place isn't worth dieing for.  I've got close to a couple grand saved up in case I find myself unemployed again.  I've been in this boat before, when I worked another grueling smoke factory.  they were ready to hire me in, but I turned them down and walked away.  it was most freeing.   this may be the case again here.  I'm this close to getting hired in, but will that be enough...?  nope.  I gotta look for something else.  something less overwhelming.  it's a big blue marble. there's gotta be some work out there that doesn't require 70 to 84 hours a week...

see. I take one day off and clean, relax and reflect, and come to the conclusion that I need to refocus on work.  that's a good start.  now, to hit the employment websites with a passion...they say it's easier to find a job while you already have one.  let's test this theory out.

the bank finally writes me back on the $300 (plus) deposit.  seems since they already completely got reimbursed for the "Great Britain" incident, for the money that I was reimbursed by the bank itself, and they weren't the ones who deposited this money, they recommend that I get with whoever deposited it, and make things right with them...all  the information I got is a town's name in Great Britain, and a vague web address that I'd rather not seek out (a recommendation that the banks fraud alert dudes gave me),  so it looks like I may have me a free bonus!  I'll sit on it a while first, and see what gives...

common sense?  there's one on every shift.  yep.  another dill hole who wants to play mind games. I won't mention his name because it's kind of unusual, and he's just the narcissistic type that googles his name on a daily basis.  let's call him Al.  this guy has been a damn pest since I went to nights.  he carries his own white out around, and fixes "mistakes" on my production sheet, then lectures forever about how I'm doing it wrong...just to lecture me again at the end of the shift to make sure I'm completely annoyed.  it's a simple sheet that one writes downtime for whatever welder that person is checking parts on.  he's gotta wander over every now and then, and pull out his white out because I did something wrong (again!).  I think he picks on me because I'll give him a fight back.   this guy (Al) will sit and argue a skewed point that has no reason or basis.  he'll fight it to the end.  my problem is, what he argues about is completely laughable.  he's trying to make me out to be an idiot, and succeeding more on making himself look like an jackass.  pretty soon, I give up.  I'm thinkin' he gets tossed around at home by his burly wife and takes out his frustration at work.  he wants so bad to be right and the alpha dog...even if his argument is completely flawed.  it's the weirdest thing!  I feel kind of bad for the guy. I looked at one of his production sheets and everything was spelled wrong.  it's sad really.  is this his cry for help, being a total ass about nothing?  maybe.  I simply came to the conclusion  that he's always right no matter what, let him be the shit, and maybe he'll stop being such a bothersome squid.  I think it's working.  he's actually being nice to me lately.  just maybe this is his backwards way of making friends.  who knows.

the above was written yesterday.  today I pulled a 12'er.  looks like we gotta work Sunday.  we'll know for sure tomorrow.  then, rumor has it, we may have to pull 3 weeks worth of work with no weekends due to a Honda recall...i'm hoping it's only a rumor.  after work, pooperdog and I take a walk.  she does her thing.  then I find some bologna and braunschweiger and wonder what I can make for lunches out of these items. being completely out of bread, I can't make sammitches.  I hit the pantry and find some spaghetti sauce and noodles.  why not fried bologna and braunschweiger spaghetti?  why not indeed.  I cut up the lunch meats into bite size pieces, fry 'em up a bit, add the sauce, let it simmer, meanwhile boiling some noodles.  it's the perfekt po' boy lunch and there's enough to last all weekend (shweet!).   yesterday's breakfast was a 'cup of soup' chicken soup, followed by apple Cinnamon oatmeal for lunch and supper.  this morning I had a taste of my bologna spaghetti creation.  it' not bad!.  I feel better about making lunch food.  it gets old quick buying $1 burgers, renuking them and snarfing them at breaks.  it doesn't take long and I'm already sick  of Wendy's dollar menu...

anyway.  gotta sleeep.  sleeeeeeeeeeeeep!

I get out of the stalag at 6:30pm.  a full 12'er.  but even with the long hours, it's been forever since pooperdog left a puddle on the rug (she's such a good dog...with a HUMONGOUS blatter and a steel trap for a bung hole!).  we do our pooperdog walk,  she does her thing, then share some Braunshweiger and leftover baked beans (she loves this combo platter.  in small portions, of course).  the fridge is officially empty of food once again.  I'd like to do some food shopping, but it looks like I may have to work tonight, Saturday and Sunday night (here's hopin' they drop Sunday...there was a question mark beside it on the bulletin board.  maybe they'll take volunteers. I'll volunteer to not work).  I need one day to relax. I ain't 20 no mo'. I'll find my way in (kicking and screaming, but I'll be there) if deemed mandatory.

looks like the other half of my  world wide pants (back-ordered work pants from a couple weeks back) is on it's way today via FedEx.  shweet! what else?  how 'bout some sleep? k. sleep it is, then

I finally make the call, and hope I can get my phone order straightened out.  the minute I get a live person and explain the situation, she puts me on hold for 10 minutes.  I was tired. I just hung up. I wasn't gonna wait all day...it's sort of a Mexican standoff.  they've got my money for the phone but not enough information for the phone plan, but insist on canceling every day (since 1/18) if I don't call within 48 hours.  I can't up and cancel myself, because then I'd probably be charged a penalty for canceling the phone plan that doesn't have the information they need (does this make sense? prob'ly not).  turns out they caved just after my failed call to them (via Skype fone).  they sent me a refund. no penalties, no charges (so far). but me, having bad luck with phones,  can almost imagine the phone plan provider (separate from the phone seller, who needed more information) will hit me up one way or another. I'm hoping not.  they canceled on me.  I win! if they try and ding me, I'll 'splain the situation, then maybe wheel and deal with them, seeing if they have a similar phone available, etc. and start the whole process over  [i'll fill ya in, as I hear more].

got home an hour and a half early tonight (we ran out of components....hurray!).  did a quick pooperdog walk, then did some online banking.  turns out the casino (or whatever establishment it may be)  reimbursed me for the money that was stolen from my checking account last month (mentioned in an earlier post).  the bank themselves had already reimbursed me for this lost money, so I'm getting double paid. I write my bank to let them know "although a $300 (plus) bonus would be nice...you guys already reimbursed me for this loss" [paraphrased].   I sent this messege to them yesterday after work.  usually they're too quick to fix something like this, and respond to my letter.  I notice today they haven't deducted said amount, or written me back.  I'm sure they'll catch it soon enough...I wasn't not gonna leave a message and look like some sort of accomplice.

gotta hit the rack.  for whatever reason I couldn't get to sleep 'till about 10:30am...getting only 6 hours of sleep before last nights 10 hour shift.  let's try for 8 hours of shut-eye today *plan*

I'm feelin' tons better by the time Monday's stint at the stalag rolls around.  that wasn't a fun week (looking back).  let's hope I don't get that sick for a long time *crosses fingers and toes*. 

so if you've read far enough back, in my blahgage, you'd know the problems I've been having with phones.  it seemingly never ends.  my newest gripe is trying to shut off Vonage. seems my call to cancel was dropped before I got an account manager on the line, even though I clearly stated my intentions to the first person I talked to (why didn't I get the account manager to begin with?), so I gotta borrow someones phone, email the account manager back as to when I'm gonna call her at which number so she knows it's me, then continue to cancel from there (sounds relatively easy, right? I'm almost bettin' that it won't be...).  meanwhile, I order a smart phone online from Best Buy.  seems my order has a problem.  they send me emails stating "call us with your order number within 48 hours, so we can fix it, or it will be canceled". I'm thinkin' at this point, let 'em cancel, I guess it's not meant to be, for me to have a phone that works...but instead of them canceling, they continue to send me the same email every day for the past 7 days.  CANCEL IT ALREADY!! JESUS! maybe I'll see how long it takes before they cave.  or I'll borrow a phone from the same person I borrow a phone from for the other problem and fix my order then call Vonage to cancel them using my new phone.  good gawd!!  what a damn mess!  it's like a vaudeville act.

let's see.  nothing else really.  small pooperdog walks following work (speakin' of pooperdog, remind me to pick up some sammitch bags...I done runned out).  sleep, work, eat (lather, rinse, repeat).

Tuesday rolls around, and my throat feels better, but the rest of the cold suddenly catches up. I'm feelin' weak and socked full of crud.  5:30pm comes around, and I make the call.  yep.  take the day off, and sleep...I use up what little over the counter stuff I have for colds, and hope it goes away before the next work day.  no such luck. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, are all 'hell days'!  I'm hackin', I'm snottin', I'm still feelin' weak. making peeps nervous that they too won't catch my crud (the temp service doesn't issue any "sick days" or "vacation days"...what other choice do I have, but to infest the rest of the shop)  12 hour days feel long to begin with, let's add the misery of a rotten cold and make it that much more fun.  when ya pull a 12 hour day with a cold, ya never seem to catch up on rest. I'm already burned out before I get to work the next day. somehow, I zombie thru, as I always do, then I hit the store on the way home Friday, and pick up more Theraflu, and Dayquil.  I've been in an otc drug induced coma ever since.  here it's 8am on Sunday, and I still feel weak and crappy (yet a bit better than yesterday).  anyway, I have 'til Monday night to shed this crap before trudging thru yet another 12 hour stint at the stalag...

due to this crappy cold, I still have beers leftover from a week ago! unheard of!. the thought of sluggin' down a coldey, in the current state i'm in, makes me wanna hurl...

why does coffee taste so crappy when ya got a cold?! yick!  earthworm dirt!.  I do some online banking and set some new goals.  first, pay down last years credit card bill (accrued from fixing a smashed truck) by $100/month (a goal, I suspect, will be easily attained, if I get hired into the stalag, but for now, I'll stick with this conservative plan). with today's $70 transfer and $30's from a couple weeks ago, January's goal is met. and secondly, save 20% of my paycheck.  you're supposed to "pay yourself first" right (even though this is my second goal)? I usually don't. I gotta force myself to do this one.  last week I put $92.19 into savings. this week, $82.20. It's something that has to be done! I need an emergency fund!  I'm always tapped (or near tapped) when it comes to saving for a rainy day. currently there's $220 (plus change) in savings. not a bad start.  I write my new goals on a piece of paper taped to the wall in front of my computer desk, as a reminder (i notice things get paid off quicker when I have a physical reminder staring me in the face.  whatever works, right?  rock on!). 

let's see.  otherwise, short pooperdog walks (due to it being blisteringly cold out, we take an abbreviated walk.  it's currently 8 below zero F), and use up another kleanex box...

just after writing yesterdays entry, I feel that familiar throat sting that I used to get often (with my cracked throat thing, and all). it worsens throughout the day.  i hit the 'sore throat and flu' meds (powder that you mix in a cup of boiling water), and crash some more.  after about 4 cups of this (over the past 24 hours) and more than plenty of sleep, I feel good enough to hit the stalag tonight.  the throat pain has subsided.  that wasn't fun.  I haven't had a cold in a long time!  currently making some coffee, just got done with a pooperdog walk, ready to shave, shower, etc. and make me some money.  speakin' of money.  they (work) had a plant meeting the other day, saying everyone (hired in) will get a 40 cent raise.  now 35% of the peeps in that crowd (including me) are temps.  why do we gotta sit thru a meeting and hear how the hired in are benefiting?  why can't we get even a penny raise?  then on top of that, I over-hear one of the welders say "whoopy! 40 fuckin' cents more!".   does he even know?  40 cents more an hour, especially with all the overtime we do, is huge!

ooooh.  just looked at the time.  gotta get ready for the stalag...I'll finish my story later.

*belch*

dammit!  weekends are supposed to be a time to regroup, and relax.  Trouble is, I don't know when I'm supposed to sleep.  I know, it seems easy enough; stay awake at nights, go to bed during the day, just like when I'm working, but man! easier said, then done.  instead, I find myself taking cat naps at all hours with intermissions of awakedness to catch up on 'the Daily show with Jon Stewart', 'Showtimes Dexter', clean the shack, walk the dog, make some food, etc..  and by the time I gotta get back to work, I'm almost back on a day schedule sleep.  it's rough!  I'm sure every 3rd shifter can feel my pain...I know 'across the way Jay' still says he has problems figuring it out, and he's been a full time graveyard shifter forever.  now don't get me wrong with that first sentence, I am able to rest and relax, but it seems so surreal when ya look outside, see the sunshine, and remember "hey, I should be sleeping", then darkness falls and what does your body naturally want to do?  yeah, sleep!  it's weird! anyway.  I'm up now (5:30am).  I'm makin' some coffee, listening to 'Gotan project radio' (Pandora.com), and scribbling nothings in my blahg...

hey, my world wide pants came in yesterday.  they fit good. I best not gain that 30 lbs back, that I lost since I started the gulag. I look deeper into getting a smart phone.  of course, one can get one relatively cheap with a 2 year plan, but the further I dig into what's involved in said plan, the more I'm turned off by the whole thing.  for example, I can get a plan with unlimited whatever for as cheap as $59/month, but then they start tacking on $29/month for internet accessibility, $12 more for texting, so much for this and that (that you had already figured was included in the original unlimited whatever plan).  by the time you add everything up that I want, it comes to $90/month.  I just can't see it!  that's too much cabbage!  meanwhile, tracphone never did send me a replacement phone, and Vonage is all crashy and what-not.  I can't win.  (and deeds, I know you've been pushing Magic Jack....maybe I ought to get me one of those 'til I can figure it all out. is Radio Shack open on Sunday?  yeah, prob'ly not)

I finish all the episodes of the 2nd year of 'Showtimes Dexter'.  it's an amazingly whacked out soap opera about a guy who works forensics by day and is a serial killer who kills killers in his spare time (when does he sleep? never).  anyway, I try and find the first episode of the third season, and bam! it says I gotta upgrade my netflix so I can receive them in the mail (DAMMIT!).  first Hulu (five seasons of 'Lost'), now Netflix (only two seasons...really?!).  I can understand Hulu not having all seasons available. they're a free site, but Netflix?  come on!  oh well.  maybe I'll start at the first episode of 'Breaking Bad'.  my Kid tells me that's a good series. *plan*

I watch the packers spank the falcons in the playoff game last night (between cat naps).  drink a couple beers (which just makes me more sleepy)....

so there's a dude at work, about my age (maybe a bit older) who, come to find out, after yackin' widdem for a spell during breaks, that he lived on the north side of Grand Rabbits while growing up.  after further yackage, he rattles off all the schools (elementary thru High school) that he'd attended, and it was exactly the ones I had attended.  then I asked where he lived.  he was about a mile and a half farther north then where I'd been raised (small world).  he lived next door to Buck Barry.  wow! Buck Barry.  there's a name I haven't heard since I was a kid. he seems to make a faint connection at the mention of my older brothers name (he doesn't remember you sis.  sorry), but said he'd moved from Grand Rabbits half way thru high school.  anyway. this guy started work (thru the same temp service) about a week after I did.  we both got praise from our bosses boss to hurry up and turn in our apps with the good possibility of getting hired in in January,  we both took on the night shift with the idea that it would help our chances (because that's what we were told).  anyway. long story, short; the guy recently asks our temp HR about the possibility of getting hired in soon?  she tells him that there will only be one spot available in January.  we start talking about each others chances.  I got more time in, but he has perfect attendance, blah, blah, then it became one of those "wait a minute" moments. we're both talking as if we're the only two applicants who are being considered...the stack of applications are prob'ly in the hundreds (maybe thousands?).  who knows. it's a bit disappointing that they're only considering one, but if it's not in the cards, I'll just keep on keepin' on 'til something does come along. any work is good work at this point (he seems to have the same laid back attitude about it). then come to find out, he worked with Mittens at his past job (the world just keeps gettin' smaller!). we talk about her for maybe one minute, then it's back to reminiscing about high school (bowling ball emoticon, for no particular reason).

is the coffee done yet?! I best go check.  then, maybe a quick pooperdog walk in the frozen trailer trash tundra

*fart*

had a strange dream about a house with interchangeable parts.  it was kinda cool! it featured weird stuff, like a slider (not a 'sliding door' slider, but a playground slider), and a revolving door (two features that I'd automatically add if'n I were an architect).  it seems it was my girlfriends house, and I was there to reconfigure the house to her new liking...it was cool!  that's what I get for sniffing paint marker all day for 3 days straight (what?).  when you're a weld checker, you're essentially putting paint marks right over hot weld, to indicate that the weld is good, and the fumes will about knock ya out.  the paint pen says "xenon free", but I'm sure it has some other toxic quality when added to such intense heat.  we'll see, when I grow a new head or another arm in the coming months.  not like the thick blue haze of the welding area itself won't produce a nuclear goiter...it's just another work shop (not unlike the boat factory, the plastic injection factory, etc of past jobs) that prob'ly have MSDS books 10 feet thick, filled with neurotoxins  and inorganic solvents, once again, that may or may not produce mutagenic qualities.  but then again, I've always wanted to be a middle-age mutant ninja turtle.

so, I hit the FedEx website, once again, to see where my pants have traveled (see last entry).  seems they started in Indiana, moved to Kentucky, now I see they've made it thru Ohio, and thru the Grand Rabbits MItten hub, so it looks like they'll be arriving today, if the truck has a good set of snow tires (and the driver wears his snow blind glasses), otherwise I prob'ly gotta wait 'til Tuesday, being that tomorrow's Sunday and Monday's a holiday (MLK day).  My life's become so exciting, that anticipating the arrival of work pants is considered a high point.  these pants have seen four different states (post purchase) before I even get to wear them. I'm wondering what kind of travel they've seen from the start?  I'm thinkin' they're made in the Honduras (where workers prob'ly make them while making 15 cents an hour), the cloth coming from a textile mill somewhere in China (where the workers make $19 a week), so one can only guess how they arrived to the U.S..  I'd like to think they've traveled 'round the world four times via rickshaw/ cargo ship/ station wagon/ freight airbus (etc) to get to the Indiana store, if the four state FedEx route (for a store located the next state down) is any indication. (this, btw, is my new longest paragraph about pants *score*)

gotta clean the wood panel submarine, and watch me some football/drink me a beer...ready, GO!

isn't Kentucky south of Indiana?  I'm thinkin' it is.  I finally ordered up those work pants that I've been wantin' to order for months now, and their email sends me to the FedEx site which shows the tracking of said articles of clothery.  it starts out in Indiana, but instead of coming north toward Michigan, it appears the truck is taking it to Kentucky.  oh well.  maybe theirs a larger hub it's gotta hit first.  who knows?  and of course, like everything else I order from this website, half the shipment is on back order [dammit!  it said "in stock" in green letters right there on the page you order from...liars!.   no worries].  worked a 12'er today.  found out that we get Saturday and Sunday off (yay! a WHOLE weekend!!).  hopefully Friday will be a partial day *fingers crossed*.  it seems our dept is ahead of schedule (except for welder 3, who has a voluntary team to work this weekend.  one of which I didn't volunteer for, of course).  these past couple days, I've been the weld checker.  yep, the guy at the end of the conveyor that labels parts, and paint markers every weld, handing said part to another checker for another spot check/packaging.  it's not as grueling as working the welder itself. it's kind of a nice change.  what was cool as well, was the guy running the welder was new, so his slow cycle time gave me enough time to learn without a crash course at top speed.  then, as I got quicker, his time got equally faster, so we both gradually learned up to speed, as it were...I remember the spastic way the day shift threw me into checking.  full tilt welder.  parts getting way behind, half knowing what's going on, chaos.  I didn't dig it at all.  it was a damn night mare!  this was a much nicer way to learn!

the pooperdog and I make french toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon yesterday morning.  delicious! this morning I have a couple bowls of honey bunches of oats.  for work lunches, I bring my leftover hamburger helper, some tator salad, and some cottage cheese (mmmmmms!)

I could sit and write some more bland blahgage, but I'm ready to fall off the chair and sleep.....sleep....sleep

I've been gettin' lazy lately with lunches, I'd hit Wendy's and buy 5 $1 double stax, or 5 $1 chicken sammichs, eating 2 before work, 1 during first break, and 2 more for lunch. fast food, at this pace, gets tiring quickly, so this morning when I got home (post pooperdog walk), I make me some hambooger helper (alright, chicken helper using hambooger instead.  it's just as yarmmy). I'll see about bringing that for a couple three lunches.  I also felt like having 2 beers (I never drink beers on a weekday with this grueling gulag schedule.  best not make that a habit),  then off to bed for a good 7 hours.  currently showered and shaved for another exciting installment of the smoke factory/stalag...

man, I gotta say, having a passenger window in the door hole makes a huge difference!  I can drive without fear of brain freeze...I gotta get to fixing those cracked brake light/head light lenses before I get pulled over for that.  maybe this weekend (if I get one?) I'll look into ordering new parts online. 

otherwise, nothin' new under the sun.  I still haven't seen Jay to see if he unfrozeded his water.  I'm sure he'd have been here buy now borrowing the shower and what-not, if he still had the problem.  anyway.  gotta get ready for the stalag. Arbeit macht frei

and just like that, neighbor Mike is gone.  he breached his lease contract and found another [sucker] to mooch off from.  he left a nice winter time flannel shirt here, but it's 4 sizes too big for me to wear. I wonder if he wonders which moochy house he left it at.  I'll just hang on to it, 'til he figures it out.  then maybe give it to Jay (he's a big dude too) if I don't hear from him.  I can't call him, my phone services are for the damn birds.  I'm thinkin' if I get hired into the smoke stalag, I'll maybe have to splurge a bit, and get me one of those smart phones (why not, right? I've had crap fones for long enough, let's do it big this time...but first, get hired in, then look). 

Rosie and I take a walk when I get home.  she's so into this winter time thing.  every little paw print gets sniffed,  every urine spot gets tagged,  she wags her tail and prances around like a puppy, stopping on occasion to roll on her back in the snow, and squirm vigorously back and forth.  it's cute.  once back home she plops down and plays old dog once again, by putting on her Ed Asner face and snoring herself to sleep. she's a cool little mammal!  Squabber seems unimpressed about everything, curled up in a ball laying on my sweatshirt on top of the dryer (also cute).

I'm diggin' the fact that the days are gettin' longer (like it matters since I sleep all day). the sun sets after 5:30pm instead of a month ago when it was dark at 4.  spring is right around the corner. I can't wait to hit that lawn chair again

I wonder if Jay got his water unfrozeded?  I'll have to bug him tonight before work, and see...

fully expecting to work at least a 10 hour day in the beer/orgy dept (Saturday), the boss walks in 'round 1:30am  and hollers "stock up, clean up...!" [shweet!].  if I hurry, I can get me some beers before the 2am bell, being tomorrow's a day off, and all.  I don't beat the bell after all being that I gotta creep around slow in this snowy urban wilderness to avoid crashing, but that's ok. I'll hit the store tomorrow at noon, and pick up some beers while grocery shopping and depositing that check I still have in my wallet (they don't call me dumbass for nuthin').  instead of getting some sleep directly after work, I go and watch a remake of a zombie movie on Netflix ('Day of the Dead'.  this time directed by the guy who gave us 'Friday the 13th part 2').  I clean the house a bit, go for a pooperdog walk, do some shopping, pick up some beers (once at the store, I realize that the new law about buying beers at 7am -instead of noon- on Sunday has been enacted. I could have went shopping a bunch earlier. no matter), DEPOSIT SAID CHECK...FINALLY, then come home,  bullshit with Jay a bit.  it seems his water pipes are frozen. I ask him what I can do to help, but he wants to tackle it alone. I tell him he can use my place for showers and shitter if needed. then just as I sit down to watch some football, I crash thru both games.  yep. slept straight thru 'em.  dammit! this night shift thing is screwing me up big time.  I'm thinkin' I got enough sleep before tonight's shift...here comes another long week, I'm thinkin'.  please, let us have a whole weekend this time.  please?  oh well. at least I can look forward to a big paycheck come this Wednesday...

gotta shave, shower, etc. and get ready for a new weeks worth of der stalag (work  will set you free).

battleship welder one was glitchy again for the first half of the shift, then, curiously enough, it ran great after lunch, so I started working in 'eye of the tiger' mode (welder 2, I can sleep walk thru; welder one, almost; welder 3, forget about it).  I've always been real close to beating the welder (about 15 seconds to whip 11 parts onto the fixture, make sure all lights are green, run back past the light curtain line, and hit the button.  it's tough, but near the end of the shift I was 'in the zone', beating Mr. Roboto at his own game.  rate is 300 parts welded per shift.  I made 282 (not bad, considering the pre-lunch ghost in the machine bull-squattage).  I've beat my personal daily rate everyday this week, yet do ya think I can get any kind of "atta boy" from a higher up.  HELL no!  my boss only shows up to ask "why is your machine down?", then I don't see him for the rest of the day.  Andrew (the guy that busts ass on #3) even mentions the fact that he goes over rate, and gets no love.  total opposite of the day shift (it's like night and day...k, bad pun).  they were very encouraging.  no wonder there's so many grumpy peeps on this shift.  anyway.   48 hours down,  24 to go.  I didn't get a pay check this week, being that I had Christmas/new year week off, and the temp service doesn't believe in paid holidays (they don't even believe in night shift premium, benefits, nothin'!...good gawd, all they seem to be good at is getting your feet in the doorway of Satan's lair puppy mill smoke factory robot stalag, and losing your paycheck). I guess I'll have to cash my Christmas check from mom and pops to cover this week.  speaking of which, and I hate to admit this, but yesterday, I couldn't find my wallet.  I looked everywhere (it's a routine that I go thru with my glasses, and other stuff as well, from time to time).  oh well, I got time to look again, after I take the stuff out of the washer and through it in the dryer.  guess what fell out of the pile while transferring said clothes?  yep, a soggy wallet.  my first thought is mom and pops Christmas check (yeah, stupid me has been carrying it around, with intentions of stopping off to the bank before or after work, but seemed to never get around to it).  luckily, there was a lot of paper in my wallet (proof of insurances from years gone by, receipts, junk).  I peeled all the paper stuff apart, throwing away the vast majority of useless outdated crap, and laying the wet check in a place where it could dry out. I empty everything else out of the wallet as well and dry it with the load I just threw in...I figured I'd pull out a leather raisin, but it dried nicely.  I put all my cards, license, important stuff back in, along with the check, and all is well.  it could have been a tragic situation, had that check not survived, or if I had a gob of dollar bills in it at the time (which is a rarity anyway).  I got lucky!

the above paragraph was written on 1/07 before work, below is after work (6:00am 1/08).

a 10 hour work day seems to whip by after 4 12'ers in a row.  maybe we'll get lucky tomorrow and get to leave at 5am again.  my welder was down for the night, so I got to work in the quiet corner in the back doing some sort of slide bracket assembly. it was a cool change of pace!  I hope they throw me over there tomorrow as well.  58 hours down, 12 (maybe 10) to go, then I get me a day off to drink a beer and watch the LIONS lose.  currently, it's snowin' like a mofo out.  my truck handles so much better in this stuff with new leaf spring brackets.  it makes a huge difference!!  ya know, it just dawned on me, that maybe my truck went into the ditch because my leaf spring bracket was already broken.  I've been assuming that the accident itself (or the tow out of the ditch) was the cause of the breakage.  I guess I'll never know for sure.  no matter...

sleep.  I need sleep.  g'nite.

back on welder one last night, and this time maintenance gets tired of coming over every time there's a breakdown (which is very often), so they show me what to do on the control panel when the light curtain breaks in order to restart it.  I took liberties that they prob'ly wouldn't normally let me take, just to keep them from coming over.  there was a couple times that I thought I did more harm than good, turns out it's hard to bust something that's already busted.  it was acting twice as quarky as last night, yet we were able to double the day shifts haul plus add 18 onto that.   looks like we have to work Friday and Saturday, so 36 hours down,  36 hours to go! (bowling ball emoticon for no apparent reason).

Rosie's been a good dog lately!  she hasn't gone potty in the house for quite some time.  I just got to sleep yesterday morning, and a half in hour into it,  she starts barking her fool head off over the garbage truck (she so rarely barks...).  I try and calm her down.  pretty soon, she fell asleep next to my bed, and we both crashed for a good 8 hours.  she's a good dog.  I find myself not writing so much about Squabber McCheese, because he doesn't bark at garbage trucks anymore. he's a good kitty none-the-less.

on my way into the trailer park this morning, I see what looks like a homeless guy all curled up on the sidewalk, in a dirty army coat, in front of the parks office door...is that Chas Manson?!  it sure looks like him!  did the park change the locks on his trailer, or what?!  what is he up to?  where's his car?  maybe that's not him?  there are three peeps walking his way...maybe they'll get him the help he needs. suddenly I'm feeling awkward as I drive past him, to my warm house.  then again, when have I ever been selfless before?  why start now?

sleeeeep.   I NEEEEEEEEEEEEED SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!! G'NITE.

two 12'ers down, and I'm feeling pretty good.  wait what? you thought I meant beers?  heh. no man, work.  Monday and Tuesday were both 12 hour days.  looks like the trend is going to be many more of these days in a row (heard from hear-say that I hear peeps sayin'). the shop is so dry that when I get home, and blow my nose [skip this part if you're squeeemish], I get weld soot and blood.  [what?  I warned ya].   that old familiar muscle pain is revisited, and my back feels like it's getting stronger again (a week off of beer drinkin' and slackage brought my back from titanium to jello in no time flat).   I was on the welder all day yesterday.  the damn thing kept breakin' down, and showing up as if I had broken the light curtain.  after about 5 of these break downs, my boss asks me why I'm jumpin' the light?!  I told him that one of them may be mine to own, but the rest are a mystery.  I change my routine so I'm way past the line of breakage with each cycle.  it still happens, but of course, no one's around to see that it wasn't my fault...maintenance comes around to restart the machine acting all grumbly, but then quickly leaves before it happens again.  anyway.  long story short, I was exonerated of all "guilt by association" shit, when a group of peeps happened to be standing by bullshitting (as they often do), and happened to witness me being overly careful, and watching the machine breaking down anyway (good! I started to feel like I didn't have my day in court, now they've witnessed the scene first hand. it's a ghost in the machine...not me!  it was a relief).  I get to do it all over again tonight.  here's hopin' they've fixed the problem by then (I'm not holding my breath, being that the place is infamous for "break down maintenance").  ohhh. it's gettin' late. gotta get ready for another stint at the stalag...

have I become so dutch, to think that $90/month for fone service is beyond astronomical?!  Brian (cool hippy lady's kid) says he just found this "deal".  he currently pays $130/month for a service he doesn't even like.  JESUS!! that's a lotta cabbage!  I'm used to spending 10 cents a minute, and then hardly using the damn thing (which, now I can only text on), or 9.99/month for Vonage (which, as you know, I just dumped) but I guess cheap doesn't always equal good when all the hassles are factored in (read past entries if you want to see why I tear my hair out about fones). I can't even justify $50/month for 100 channels of cable TV...and I dig TV.  I guess I've lived "on the cheap" for so long, I forget what "normal" people do to get by.

as I'm writing, I google "tear".  is that how you spell the word meaning "to rip" or "to cry".  seems both words are spelled the same.  how can that be?  I know most words have more than one meaning, but this one's spelled the same with different pronunciations.  hmmmm. I'm confused.  or maybe google's spell checker is off a bit.  don't matter.  the end.

I was stressin' hard this weekend about going back to the gulag!  a good week off to heal my spine, and the thought of going back was not so good.  the Kid comes and visits during my lowest of lows.  I think I drilled him with gloom and doom about my work and the ever declining economy (sorry Kid, for that).  as predicted, I was fine, once I got there, and started bustin' a hump again.  once rolling, it almost felt good to be back (what the hell did I just say?!).  my welder breaks down for a good 3 or 4 hours, so they have me work in the beer/orgy dept. (these night shifters are quiet, compared to the "party monsters" on days).  then I get sent to work for a couple hours in the "good job" dept (the tools tell you "good job" with each correct use), so it was kind of a good mixed bag sort of day, instead of one machine for 12 hours. 

got my hair cut before work.  feels good to not be the hippy I was becoming.  it's snowing like mofo outside.  I best start getting ready for the gulag early, then maybe hit the dollar menu at Wendy's for breakfast...

all right, I'm fed up with stoopid fones!  Vonage wants to keep kickin' me offline. I get a call from my kid, and bam! what a pain! I believe this is why I dumped them to begin with a year or two ago. I get so disgusted rebooting modems, just to have shit crash 3,4 more times...I use my Skype fone and call Vonage support.  the first call gets dropped before I can even finish the voice prompt.  the next call, I get thru that, just to have the tech guy say he can't hear me,  the next call, I do get a good connection, but most of the way thru my cancellation (yeah. I said cancellation! I'm not going to go thru all the horse shit, that I suddenly remember happening the last time I was a customer), the call was once again dropped. the fone gods hate me.  I jet an email to Vonage, saying that I hope our last call was enough to cancel everything and close my account.  I lose $13 start-up fee, but as long as they understand that I don't want to be charged, and discontinue my account, it'll all be worth future headaches of trying to band-aid thru figuring it out (the route I took too long with the last time I had them).  good news is, during our latest Rosie pooperdog walk, she stops to poop in someones yard, right next to a folded 20 dollar bill.  I unfold it. it looks real.  maybe that's compensation from the fone gods themselves?.  they feel bad enough for me to refund me right next to where Rosie dropped a steamer.  the universe does have some sort of balance.

one more day of football bowl after football bowl, beer after beer with Mike on Thursday.  I felt so burned out, that when he asked to do it again tonight, I had to explain my burn-outtedness with both football and beers, and will just be a hermit bum tonight (good call...my liver will appreciate a couple days off before going back to work on Monday).    before drinkin' all the football, and watching all the beer, I take my car into the shop (did I write about this? prob'ly).  he gets the windshield in as well as the passenger window, but calls during the day, and asks if he could leave it overnight, because they sent the wrong mirror (I'm almost positive I've already written about this....oh well. read it again).  next morning, he calls and says they sent him the wrong mirror again (this time it wasn't the wrong style, but the driver's side instead of the passengers side).  dang it!  I wanted him to get that mirror on in the morning so I could bring it into the leaf spring guy in the afternoon.  I 'splain this to him, and he suggests that I drive it to the leaf spring guy with the passenger door half torn up (you gotta have the inside panel off to affix the mirror), and he (leaf spring guy) can do his thing, while the right mirror comes into the glass guy shop (to be installed either after the leaf spring guy on that day, if there's time, or on Friday).  good idea!  I bring it to the leaf spring guy. long story short, he's able to put the replacement brackets on within a couple hours.  next day, I drop off my car, once again, to the window guy.  he's able to affix the correct mirror while I cross the street and do KFC.  so before the new year begins, I'm able to get my truck back to "normal" again...or so I thought.  on the way to his shop, the "check engine" light comes on.  I eagle eye the gauges to make damn sure it's nothing important (oil pressure, thermostat, what have you). this has happened before, it runs real rough in first gear, the light comes on, then it runs fine.  when I had a repair guy look at it before, his computer (hooked to my truck computer) came up with a "misfire" error.  that's prob'ly what I got now. it did essentially the same thing. he told me that it's ok to drive that way. it just meant that one of the cylinders plugs misfired.  then on the way back from the glass guys shop, my exhaust pipe goes and breaks in half.  dammit!! it's louder than a dragster, so I stop off at the brake/muffler place, and they're able to weld the pipe back together for $50.  it was good timing to get replacement glass in.  it's been raining hard ever since...(yeah, raining and high fifties.  some Michigan winter, heh?  it's 57 degrees currently at 1am, January first).  I spend my new year (beerless, and footballess, of course) watching a Netflix movie called "Shutter Island".  better flick than I thought it'd be!

let's see.  what else.  other than a crazy week of running around, and half drowning in football and beer, it's been a good week off!  after turning Mike down, I realize how many munchies, tupperware, plates, bowls, shirts and sunglasses this guy leaves 'round my house, so I collect it all up and bring it to his house.  he wasn't home, but I leave it all on his porch. he'll prob'ly be back tomorrow and ask about more beers and football.  I'll have to turn him away, although, maybe I'll have a beer or two watching the LIONS win on Sunday (how about those LIONS!! THAT'S 3 WINS IN A ROW!!! how long ago has that happened?!

the pooperdog and I share a fried egg, bacon and cheese mcmuffin (homemade) for our midnight new years celebration.  good stuff!

oops.  batt'ry power low. hit "save", spell check later, then plug it back in...

beautiful sunny day (rarity for winter time).  looks like a good day to take the dog on a Sunday drive...wait, truck's at the shop gettin' new glass. oh well. the glass guy calls me (on my new Vonage fone. new Vonage router showed up the next day, I'm still waiting on a new tracfone fone. fock off tracfone) to tell me that they (his auto parts supplier, I'd imagine) sent him the wrong mirror, and would it be ok if I left the truck overnight, 'til the part comes in..blah. yep. that's fine.  I'm supposed to drive it down to get my leaf springs fixed tomorrow, but that's not an all day affair, so why not?.  cleaned the kitchen and did some laundry after Mike follows me down to drop off my truck.  the place looks like party central, drinkin' beers and watchin' football every night for the past 3 nights.  he tells me there's 3 more bowl games on tonight.  he's the biggest damn mooch there is (i'm thinkin' I already told you about him).  he's a professional excuse giver, as well. when I ask him to buy the next round of beers "...yeah, well, this person owes me money, and he's out of town, so you might have to front me again".  dude! or maybe you can watch me drink beers while we watch the game. amazing!  the only thing half saving his bacon is he brings over food he doesn't want from his free food drives.  that helps, but still, come on...turns out, he won't be my neighbor for long. he's talkin' about a small room he's renting out somewhere in town, with free roaming privileges of the rest of the house.  sounds nice. I hope they don't mind moochers.

...and hit the bricks, I did. getting tired of waiting for a replacement phone from tracfone, so I re-upped with Vonage ($9.99 plus tax/month...shweet!). I was wide awake in the middle of the night last night, so I signed up online, then busted out my old land-line phones, hooked them both up to charge, and hooked up the old Vonage router.  once all hooked up, and signed up, I figured I was ready to fly, but it kept giving me an [006 error] (whatever that means, I don't have my old Vonage hand book), so I called tech support (using my Skype phone).  she tells me I have to wait for the new router to arrive.  the one I have is out dated and set up for my old phone number. (k, well, I'll wait then).  meanwhile, I call the glass fix-it guy and set up an appointment to have the windshield, passenger window and passenger side mirror replaced on Wednesday.  then, I wandered down to a leaf spring fix-it place, here in town, that Mike recommended.  he gives me an estimate of $238 to replace both back leaf spring brackets.  I give him a hundred dollar deposit, and I'm supposed to call him tomorrow at noon to see if I can bring it in that afternoon.  he says it'll only take a couple hours to replace, so maybe I'll bring a book, and just hang out.  then I call  the hospital (via Skype) and zero out that balance (it was a goal to get it gone by the end of this year...score!).  let's see. oh yeah, then I stop off at the trailer park office and ask if she got my last months lot rent check (??).  she said she does, and will cash them at the end of the month (cool! I was starting to wonder if I even left a check in the door slot at the beginning of this month?).  I got my new debit card in the mail last week, so today, I give the bank a call to activate it.  so new phone on the way, new leaf spring fix possibly as soon as tomorrow, and new glass/mirror this Wednesday (shweet!!). things are falling together...so far, so good.  let's see if I can start the new year with last years car/phone/stolen Identity problems behind me...

yesterday, I was in great pain with stomach problems, so I missed a good LIONS game (Mike was here and gave me the lowdown after I took me a power-nap to try and relax that broken bottle in the gut feel/diarrhea thang.  good gawd!  that was an awful bout...maybe beers after a couple of english muffins with peanut butter is a bad idea afterall).

we worked an entire night after all on Thursday.  peeps were ticked that we had to be there at all because we weren't supposed to run the welders to begin with (according to the production schedule that they post by welder #1).  come to think of it, peeps be ticked most the time anyway.  it's a grumpy lot, these grave yard shifters.  always bitchin' about this and that.  slept all day Friday. woke up 'round 4:30 pm when Mike came over to pound on the door. he wants to know if I was up to watching the Hawaiian bowl (college football game between Hawaii and Tulsa).  sure.  I did the same thing I pulled last weekend, buying a 30 pack of beers and hiding all but 12 in my little fridge, then pushing him to buy his own (when he asked how many I had) so I'll have enough for this weekend.  he buys himself a sixer and still sponges a couple (plus a "roady") from me.  I ask him about my DVD s.  he quickly says "do you remember which ones you lent me? they're all boxed up...". he does come back later with 3 (of the 4 or 5 that I lent him).  good enough.  wait, boxed up.  one more clue (besides the cops showing up, prob'ly with an eviction notice, his TV, gas, and garbage turned off) that he's moving somewhere else. where, I wonder.  anywhere but here.

during the football game and many o'beerage, Mike suggests going to his buddies house, to the trailer around the corner (walking distance).  he says he's having a big shindig, and we should hit it.  I'm in (I like shindigs).  we stumble there, beers in hand, as we get closer, it's hugely noticeable that nothing's going on.  there's only one car in the drive. I'm quickly thinking we shouldn't bother this guy on Christmas eve, since it's obvious that this shindig of his was a bust, but Mike knocks on the door anyway (the back door at that).  his friend lets us in and immediately says "nope, bad time, get out" (now there's a guy with a spine).  Mike's all weirded out about the scene and questions it on the walk home.  then doesn't drop it, he goes and calls the guy.  seems he did have a party earlier (so he tells Mike), but their was a scene between him and his girlfriend that ultimately broke up the fun.  he's still weirded out while we're watching the rest of the game.  drop it dude. anyway, Mike says text me in the morning, I'll whip up some eggs, fried tators and onions.  cool.  seems morning came and went. I slept like a log for a good 15 hours.  maybe I was playing catch up for the sleep I missed while slaving at the gulag...? Jay comes over with a couple beers and lets me know how his Christmas party went.  seems he had too much to drink and was his abrasive self times a thousand towards his kids and x-wife.  he claims he'll never get invited again.  after he split, I notice a couple plates wrapped in tin foil on the grill outside my door.  Mike made breakfast after-all.  I texted him thanking him for the grub, along with sorry, my body is confused to whether I should sleep for night shift, or days [paraphrased].

I watch a couple 3 more 'Dexter' episodes last night (via Netflix) while making some Mongolian rice with beef hambooger helper thing, and swilling a couple beers from my little fridge stash.  it was a relaxing Christmas. 

tomorrow, I gotta hit the bricks hard, and get my truck in for an estimate on the broken leaf spring, plus I email the window fix-it guy.  he's gonna fix both windows on Thursday (shweet!).  meanwhile, I spend a good hour looking at used cars online.  maybe it's time to unload this ol' truck and upgrade to something within this millennium...or just drive it into the dirt.  I'm hugely indecisive.  but, whatever route I go, I need to fix this truck first, which, in turn, will prob'ly make up my mind to keep it, I'm thinkin'. we'll see.

...and speakin' of dirt, the coffee tastes like dirt this morning.  ICK!

alright, remember how I was so careful about writing down the titles to the DVD s that neighbor Mike borrowed (and returned the next day)? I should've been just as cautious with the next set.  he's had them now for awhile, and I don't recall how many and which ones.  I grab my lawnmower gas can from outside his shed, so at least I get that back.  he stops by every night (he's calling right now) to ask if he can hang around an borrow my laptop/TV.  he's slowly moving in, and I hate it!  the good thing is, he can let Rosie out before he goes home.  I won't be surprised, if one day, I'll find him crashed on the couch when I get home from work.  I know, use that titanium spine of mine, and tell him to get lost.  don't be the door mat.  he's just been cool about bringing over food, etc (he hits a good 3-4 food banks a week).  he then asks if he can borrow my trash can (jesus. you have no trash service either?!).  he walks back and forth from his house with broken bags of trash "someone got into and destroyed my garbage", he says, then promptly overfills my trash can (thanks! good thing I got spare trash can from when he "borrowed" this one, and I thought it was stolen).  he does claim, however, that he landed himself a night shift job (that's good news).  let's see how long that job lasts him.  I've only known the guy for a half a year, but feel like I already got his number.  ya know what I mean?  he's predictable in the sense that he finds himself work, does the AA thing for a month or two, then mysteriously drops the job, and . drowns himself in alcohol for the next month or two. lather, rinse, repeat (there goes my fone again.  he calls 4-5 times a night, then stops by before I go to work to make sure it's ok if he can mooch off me.  good gawd! leave me alone all ready.  stop trying to soften me up with free food...).  maybe I'll split for work early today.  we're only supposed to work a half day (rumor has it), then I have 'til the 3rd of next year to rest my spine.  laptop batt'rys gettin' low and I gotta get ready for the smoke stalag...

did a good $100 in grocery shopping yesterday (yay...food!).  it was yet another uneventful day, except I got to watch the LIONS win!! they barely tied the game up at the end (playing Tampa Bay on the road), then they won the coin toss for overtime giving them the ball first. they marched it down the field, and Rayner (kicker) becomes the hero for the day (making both the field goal for the tie, and for the win).  it was an exciting game. of course, I watched it (with Mike) on a crashy website, so I thought I'd miss the end...but was fortunate enough to get the site working, to see a history making game (this win breaks their NFL record 26 game losing streak on the road).  Mike splits after the game. I watch me the rest of the first years episodes of 'Dexter' on Netflix. 

I bring over some left over pizza and a bottle of Chipotle sauce to Jay (noticing I had used the last of his on the day before' breakfast pizza).  he, in turn, sends me back home with some delicious meatballs that he was crock pot cooking for a Christmas thing that he was going to.  mmmmmmms!

otherwise;  pooperdog walks,  a couple 3 beers, power-nap, etc...it was a most relaxing weekend.

last nights midnight power-nap turns into a full blown night of sleep.  I guess my body needs the rest, but now it feels like I'm back on day shift schedule.  that tweakin' my brain into staying up when it's dark (when I don't have to work) is no easy task.  I guess it'll take some more time to get used to the adjustment.  I'm thinkin' just as I finally do get used to it, I'll prob'ly have the opportunity to jump back on days, and have to readjust all over again.  the bigger issue, at this point, is Rosie's adjustment to it all.  according to Brian (new room mate renting out the big bedroom starting January), his hours will be cut back after Christmas, so although, he works nights too, he'll be able to let her out to pee somewhere toward the middle of my shift (that'd be way cool! right now, she's springin' a leak on my rug, every now and again.  it's not so cool, but she's gotta do, what she's gotta do.  when nature calls, and there's no doggy door, shit happens.  again, she doesn't get scolded for this because it's way not her fault).  anyway, I wake up this morning with a great deal of muscle soreness. it's as if I lost a 15 round boxing match with Sugar Ray Leonard last night.   it's a powerful ache, prob'ly from my body finally having a day of rest and catching up to heal from the grueling work-out at the smoke gulag.  the good news is I'm feelin' great about being 30 lbs lighter, and gettin' ripped as if I was on PX 90, and my spine feels as if I could lift a VW over my head.  it's now made of titanium after throwing around car seat frames for 3 months, so it's that's the good part...

my Master Card comes in the mail yesterday. I activate it (using Mikes fone).  my first purchase may be those work pants I wanted to buy months ago, but just haven't found the money for.   even though, they're a bit expensive ($30+/pair), I've always liked the BDU's they have for sale at uscav.com. I've bought and wore out many o' pair of these. they're the most comfortable work pants in the omniverse (wait, is that a word?).  my old blue jeans work ok, but all (3) are sized 36 waist. I'm down to about a 32 waist now, and need a good cub scout belt just to hold 'em up. 

so looking at my bank account last week, I get frustrated by all the transfer fees, and overdraft fees, and fee fees on top of fees that accrue because some chucklehead from Great Britain decides to gamble using my debit card number, then I get even more whacked out of shape when I get an email from the bank, with directions on how to deal with confronting fraudulent behavior (a confusing letter that tells me to write to them within 90 days to state my case, etc.).  then, this morning, I look at my online account again, and it seems all the fees (on top of fees) have been reversed, and the money this guy used (and hopefully choked on) is back in my bank, showing up as if it were my money.  this is good!  my bank seemingly took care of the dilemma in record time. I quickly use the money to pay off the overdraft (being that's where the money was taken from to begin with).  thanks Mr. banker for easing my mind. I've heard stories about peeps spending years getting their identity back.  here's hoping this case is closed.

mom and dad send Christmas/birthday money via snail mail.  this is huge!  again, between this and my MC, my truck can be fixed so I don't have to freeze my brain while driving in this ice station Zebra/antarctic weather.  they stress that I give them a call, but they have no idea the stupid problems I've been having with my fone.  maybe I'll send 'em a link to this bland blahg, then they too can cure their insomnia by reading this.  I write them a quick email, but don't know if they even check the 'puter anymore.  I guess my best bet would be to sit down and write 'em a letter via snail mail and hope the pony express delivers way out in the woods where they preside.  I'm guessin' it does, being they just sent me mail (dah). I'll have to show my appreciation some how and stop being that hermit d-bag, that I've become.

'Venetian Snares' on Pandora radio.  most excellent!  CRANK IT!!

all right.  I gotta hit the store after I squeeze a turd out of the dog while going for our not-so-barefoot walk in the blustery goodness that I like to call "shiddy weather" (people with good attitudes call it winter).  that wind chill lately makes my eyeballs wanna freeze solid into my skull, meanwhile, the dog is pulling snow angels and dragging me toward taking longer walks, acting all puppy like, sniffing other little mammal tracks, and here I'm thinkin' do yer bidness foo, I got hot coffee back home to soak said eyeballs in...she's a good dog. I try and enjoy the walks as much as she, but  I already long for the days when I can once again feel the blistering heat of the pavement on the bottom of my feet. she's lookin' at me right now, with those "take me for a walk" eyes.  best get my parka on and make some more eye thawing coffee.

I pretty much crawl from my truck to the house, after a hard week of welding.  'across the way, Jay' asks me (hollering from his front porch) how I'm liking 3rd shift?  dude, it blows! he offers me a beer.  I tell him I'll stop by after I squeeze a turd out of my dog (my goofy way of saying I'm gonna walk her, of course).   after our walk, I stop in with a couple of clam beers (clamato and budweiser...it's like carbonated V8 with alcohol).  he's not up to trying one, so I drink both, while he drinks from his fridge stash.  we bullshitted for a spell, then he makes a frozen pizza.  I have me a couple pieces, then split so I can sleep.  I crash 'til about 2pm, then neighbor Mike returns the DVD s he borrowed yesterday (jesus! ya all ready watched all those?!), and borrows 4 more, then comes back about an hour later, saying he's all DVD'd out, and wonders if I'm gonna watch any football (via my laptop.  at this point I was jammin' out to Pandora radio, cleaning the kitchen). I ask him would he rather we head over to his house and watch the game on the big screen (he's got a 52 inch number that rocks out!).  he says his TV has been shut off (uh-oh!).  "ok then, yeah cool, you can watch the game here, but I gotta take me a shower, squeeze a turd out of my dog, and find something to eat.  help yourself...".  he turns on the game, then says "I'll be right back, I gotta go turn off my heater" (uh-oh part 2.  I'm thinkin' to myself that maybe he's had his TV and heat discontinued, but I don't ask).    as we're watching the game, he asks when Brian will be moving in (uh-oh part 3).  I tell him January 1st, and then emphasize the fact that he has a lot more stuff to move in.  I'm anticipating the fact that he's eventually gonna come right out and ask if he can move in, but he doesn't (yet). I'm gettin' ready to give him the big "NO...", when he does. we watch more football.  later, he lets me borrow his fone so I can call Tracfone tech support and see about getting my fone to work.  as I'm in the middle of a good 45 minute conversation, the tech support person decides she can't hear me on Mikes fone either (GODDAMMITT!!).  I try again.  a good 45 minutes more with many attempts at the tech support person trying to call my fone, and it's determined that the coverage in my area isn't good (what? it's been great for years, why the change? she doesn't know).  anyway, she says they'll ship me a free replacement fone that picks up the signal better, and as she has me on hold, Mikes fone battery dies.  good gawd!! me and fones lately! I'll wait a good week, and if I don't see a replacement fone in the mail, I'll give Vonage a call again (I'll have to read old entries, I don't remember if I dumped them because of tech issues, or just didn't need it anymore? I still have the land line fones in my closet.) I drop the whole thing for now, and realize that it's been a good 12 hours since I've last eaten.  even though I had pizza for supper (uh, day shifts equivalent to breakfast), it sounded good for breakfast (supper) as well.  I had me a couple 3 beers by now, so I ordered it to be delivered. I call Jay and see if he's interested in splitting the pizza with Mike and I, he said he was on his way, but never showed  (I'll bring him some cold pizza tomorrow morning...). Mike and I do in a good 3/4's of the 18 inch pizza, then he splits for home.  I turn on the Bourne Identity flick that Mike had returned, and promptly fell asleep...it's almost midnight now.  I should be wide awake if I follow my work schedule, but feel like crashing out into a deep power-nap.  power-nap it is, then.  g'nite.

K, It's been awhile since my last entry.  I'm still finding my bearings pulling 12 hours on nights getting stuck on welder 1 (it's just like starting over again), and what's a bit confusing is, at the end of shift, I ask the supervisor if we have to work tomorrow ('cause sometimes we have Fridays off) . yep. then I ask him if "working tomorrow" means coming back in at 6:30pm tonight. yep.   he goes on to say how confused he still gets, and he's worked nights forever...sometimes it's hard to even know what day it currently is because of the day change at lunch time.  it's most disorienting, but if I simply tune a radio station from the folds of my brain on, and roll with it, it's not a thing.  the night shift boss isn't as easily swayed about leaving early.  so it looks like I'm in for some long nights for awhile, and here comes a weekend.  we have Saturday and Sunday off. do I follow thru this weekends time off as if I'm still on nights? I'd hate to have to throw my body's rhythm off again, then come Monday, struggle to switch back into graveyard mode. I'll get advice from 'across the way Jay', he's worked nights forever.  maybe he'll have some tips .

so, I assumed that my telephone was broken, I buy me a new one ($20 cheapo thru Tracfone), borrow Jay's fone to have everything switched over, and the new one gives me the same fits.  so I guess it's not the fone, so much as maybe the service that's fockin' with me.  once again, I gotta borrow a fone, and call India for tech support and see if they can work this new problem out, otherwise, I will dump their service and maybe go back to Vonage (which is pretty much land line only, but they were a good and cheap provider when I had them).

all right, betwixt the broken windows in the truck, the stupid busted fone issue, getting used to nights, and Rosie leaving the occasional package on the rug (also trying to adjust to my schedule), I get a call from my banks fraud alert department saying my account is essentially in lock-down because of some unusual activity.  great! I quickly borrow Jay's fone, and find out wassup.  seems some guy in Great Britain used my card number twice, for a total of $774. toward what looks like a gambling website.  how the hell did he get my digits?! I'm asked to come into the bank and sign an affidavit of fraud on these transactions, so they can erase them off from my account.  meanwhile, they scrap that card number and reissue me a new one.  they're nice enough to offer me cash until the new card comes in, but I can survive off from my towing reimbursement, so all is good.  I'll rest easier when I see these transactions gone forever.  the banker reassures me by adding "the good news is, he only has information about this [now defunct] debit card and knows nothing about your checking account info" (how is she so sure about that?).  she also tells me that my Master Card should arrive in the mail come Monday of next week.  cool!  then I can get rolling on calling around (with a broken fone), and setting up an appointment to get my windows fixed...good gawd, the anxiety of it all. 

my fridge and pantry are almost completely empty.  I'm bringing oatmeal for lunch to work, doing some more oatmeal for supper, then eating at McDonald's for (5:30pm) breakfast.  I'll have to make a grocery run this weekend, and buy some "real" food.

what else?  oh yeah, I still haven't talked with neighbor Mike to find out why the po-po were there the other day.  I'm curious as hell.  he does leave me a message about finding a night shift job...that's a good thing. he'll maybe slow his booze funneling down a bit (I know it did for me).

[...] just as I'm writing about him, he comes a knockin', lookin' pretty loaded.  seems that job that I was just telling you about, fell through.  he arrived to it, then got turned away (for whatever reason).  he'll see about more work come Monday.  meanwhile, he borrows some DVD s from me. I best write down which ones, to make sure I get them back.  let's see. 'the Matrix', 'the Bourne series', 'war of the worlds', and 'avatar'.  surprisingly, he hasn't seen any of these.  he better take care of 'em.  I lent him my lawnmower gas can and still haven't seen it back, then, for whatever reason, he had my garbage can, and didn't return that (he claims he didn't know, but I find that a bit fishy).  dammit!  I forgot to get nosey and ask him about the cops.  son of a bitchhh! oh well.  when (if) he returns the DVD s, I'll catch up with him (yeah, I'll prob'ly forget then too).

gots to gets ready for slave work down at the puppy mill/smoke stalag.

yay! (part 2), my car insurance company writes me back saying they [finally] got my towing bill and will have a check in the mail for me for $150.  swheet! now if I could only borrow a neighbors fone.  I'll wander down to the cool hippy ladies house, during my next pooperdog walk, and see if she'll let me call to activate my new fone (and here, not too long ago, I used to have 3 phone services.  maybe I'll hook Vonage back up, as a $15/month phone back-up, in case my tracfone poops again...), then I'll be able to actually call around and get more estimates, at least to get the passenger window fixed. it was a damn right cold ride on the way to work yesterday! I gotta get it fixed soon!  meanwhile, I think I got it bad? there are peeps riding there bikes to work (can you imagine?! ). the bike rack at works parking lot always has 3 to 5 bikes parked in it...when times get tough, tough peeps ride bicycles. I hope I never have to resort to that.  hell no! that's too much like using a canoe for deep water exploration. I'll move to Arizona before I ride anything open to the air in this crappy weather (ummm...sans my truck, which will be unopen to the air soon enough).

anyway, pooperdog walk/borrow fone adventure awaits

yay!  things are lookin' up!  Master card approved ($2k limit ought to be beyond plenty to get my wheels back in order). on second look, it'd prob'ly be a good idea to buy me a passenger side door mirror, so I don't get stopped (repair and report) for that.  I look on line and find a brand new one for $39 (reasonable enough...maybe I'll call the junk yard first). also, my phone arrives!  I charge both old and new phone up, so when I borrow someone's phone, I can call the 800 number and transfer minutes and phone number (why can't I simply swap out the sim card? oh well).

so I survived my first grave yard shift, and as I'm pulling out of my driveway to get to work, a couple county cops pull into Mikes driveway with lights a flashin' (he prob'ly called 911 when he ran out of Popov.  all kidding aside, I hope everything's ok).  damn, I wish I could have hung around and been nosey, but I needed to get to work.  Maybe I'll hear the story next time he tries to come over to mooch some more beers from me.  who knows, maybe they took him in (for gawd only knows what?).  then, weirdly enough, I'm eatin' a fish sammitch in the burger king parking lot, and almost the same thing happens, but this time it was 3 cop cars surrounding a Cavalier.  dang!  I'm half worried that a cop car will stop me when they see the window gone or the giant spider web crack on my windshield and wonder what kind of hit and run I was involved in.  I carry a copy of the police report in my wallet, in case they wanna know...

I get home and quickly let Rosie outside knowing she's gotta go potty pretty bad by now.   she pees, but nothing else, which prompts me to turn on every light in the house and make sure she didn't....uh oh. yep. she pooped in the back bedroom. I clean it up, and didn't scold her, of course.  that's a long time for any critter to go without poopin'.  she's a good dog! maybe I should look into buying her one of those astro-turf mats designed for doggies to poop on (I know, it sounds kind of revolting, but it's better than having her poop on the rug, right?). *plan*

anyway, I do a quick load of laundry, take me some Ibuprofens for a tight back, then plan on hittin' the rack here soon, so I'm alive again in another 12 hours, to do it all over again.

all right, I should be asleep right now, being that I gotta pull a 10 to 12 hour shift come 6:30pm.  I'll try and get a nap in soon, meanwhile, I wait for the Fedex truck to bring me my new phone (their "tracker" says it should arrive today before 3pm). it'll be good to have a phone again (as much as I don't use it, when it's broke, I seem to need it more.  go figure.).  also I shoot an email to my insurance company asking if they'd received my towing receipt that I had sent last Monday.  nope...shit! I write them back letting them know which towing service it was, and when they'd pulled the money from my account, etc.. here's hopin' the insurance co. does a little footwork and calls the tow place to have them fax my receipt in, because I can't call 'em (yet).  anyway, I'm sure things will get cleared up in a bit, and I'll have an extra $150 in my checking account (check via snail mail, i'm sure). also, I shoot another email to my bank to see if I'd been approved (or not) for the credit card I signed for on Friday.  she was nice enough to write me back quickly with '...I'll let you know tomorrow'.  that's zero for two.  no worries. things iron themselves out over time. I'll just keep corresponding with both insurance co., and bank until things are good.

I'm about sure that the Fedex guy will show up during a good power-nap...as long as it aint' Mike bangin' on my door needing more beers, it's all groove-chicken!

take me a smallish frozen pooperdog walk, oatmeal for breakfast, and Pandora radio station set on "Otto Von Schirach" (good stuff there, boyo!)

it's been raining since yesterday 'round noon. I cut up a kitchen trash bag to slam into the trucks door blocking out most of the water from coming in thru the busted window.

[...] knock, knock. guess who.  Mike wants me to do another beer run.  dammit!  didn't I tell ya he'd prob'ly forget.  it don't matter. I have nothing going on and at least this time he has money (or the friend he brings with him does). of course, I gotta wait 'til noon, with the blue laws being what they are, and all. I mention if it's raining too hard, I may have to borrow your truck so I don't get my interior soaked "good luck with that" he says. "there isn't any gas in it".  nice. Mike leaves early while his friend hangs around writing out a small list of what they need.  I ask if Mike is working "oh yeah.  he works [down at the smoke factory where I work]".  I ask him "still?  no one's seen him 'round for a good 3 weeks".  he's surprised at this (maybe I've said too much?).  he said he'll ask how works going and see what kind of answer he gives.  interesting.

damn, I had a lot to write about. why did he have to knock and make my thought train derail?  oh well. it wasn't important...

later: I was in the middle of a great power-nap, watching the LIONS lose thru my eyelids (they actually beat the packers), when guess who pounded on my door.  GODDAMMIT!! fockin' Mike waking me up, lookin' to use me as a beer runner AGAIN!  DUDE. THIS IS THE LAST TIME! you get your own damn beer, and you get enough to last you all day!  I'm not obligated to be your stupid supplier.  I got kind of pissy (I don't usually get that way, but dammit! it was a good power-nap!). i made him ride along with me, and kind of got a bang out of watching him squirm from the cold.  he even reached for the window handle, prob'ly by habit.  all the powder snow from the trucks hood wafted into the broken window. the weather by now had become much colder and blustery (from rain and 39 degrees this morning,  to snow and 25 with a high windchill...wait, low windchill? ah, you know what I mean, by mid afternoon).  the roads by now are pretty shiny.  I took my time to make sure we didn't ditch the truck, and to see if Mike would freeze solid by the time we got back...otherwise, frozen pooperdog walks, drink some beers (after Mikes beer run), watch some football (how about that Patriots/Bears game played in the snow...shweet!) and scavenge the pantry for grub (hey, why'd my letters turn black?!)

the weld gods (careful, there's that 'G' word again) were kind to us to let us out early on my last day as a day laborer at the puppy mill smoke factory Mannschaftsstamm und Straflager [ummm....prison camp].  they let us out at 3pm. I was able to actually get to a couple of fix-it places for estimates and what-not, before they closed.  first stop, was to a place that details cars, and replaces windows.  he quotes me $100 to replace the side window, and $225 for the windshield (not too unreasonable, but can prob'ly find cheaper), next stop was to my fix-it automotive place.  he doesn't happen to work on busted leaf springs, but refers me to a place that does in Grand Rabbits. I get the phone number, but can't yet call for an estimate, being my new fone hasn't arrived yet, and don't feel like taking the 40 minute drive, just to find out that they're maybe not even open on Saturdays.  next stop is the bank to see if I can get me a smallish loan to cover all these repairs, so I don't have to eat my shorts all at once.  even though, my credit's good, she says I have nothing to use as collateral ('cept for an old busted truck which currently aint' worth a nickel), so she suggests signing up for a credit card (you know from past entries how I dislike these, but what else can I do, but drive around in a truck without a window in the dead of winter for months until I collect enough dough).  I reluctantly agree, even though, I have about 4 of 'em (accounts still open, zero'd out, and cards cut up years ago). I figure I may as well do my banking/Credit card with the same bank. I ask her if I should close the old accounts, she says it's not a good idea (for credit score sake, it's good to have a history...whatever).  she'll give me the goods today, as to whether (or not) I've been approved. 

[...]

I take a break from writing the above, to answer the door. Mike's all ready loaded (at 11am) and wants to know if I can continue being his enabler (my words, not his). sure. then he asks if I can cover for him (financially).  dude! I'm riding the edge of the cliff, and you want what?!  upon second thought, he did let me borrow his ride, and his fone when I ditched my car (which was most life saving), so I bought him a twelver of the cheapest beer imaginable (Miller) making sure that he understood that we're even now. he's good with that.  good.  no more beer text messaging, nothing.  even up.  he's pretty hammered, he'll prob'ly forget

[...]

again, a knock at the door.  Brian stops by to collect on a Rosie sitting check that I owe him. I tell him the wipe out story, and the potential for getting hired in come January.  I ask him about his work schedule (being that he'll be a room mate starting January), so as I can maybe continue to pay him, to at least let the dog out to do her thang when he gets home.  turns out, he works from 2:30 pm to midnight (currently 2:30am to keep up with the holiday schedule).  cool!  he says we'll work something out...good.  I knew it'd be an easy fix.  I take Rosie for a walk, then we make bacon and scrambled eggs (mit cheese), toast, and more coffee.  Rosie gets her share to keep her coat shiny.  she luvs the bacon and eggs nums!  we cook, and eat to the stylings of Butthole Surfers: 'Rembrandt Pussyhorse' (one of my favorites of theirs).

so, I jokingly mention, yesterday, to be careful about broken glass in my hot dogs...I nuke 3 of them last night, and as I'm finishing the first one, I bite down on something crunchy.  you guessed it.  window glass!  .  I finished the rest, chewing gently just in case...

I clean the wood-panel submarine up a bit (dishes, laundry, vacuum, etc.), then continue to type more nonsense into my blahg.  the end.  time to maybe crack a beer and watch some collidj football.

[...]

again, someone knocks. what is this, Halloween? seems there's a group of kids, piling out of a van, willing to shovel my drive-way for free.  the word "community service" was used. I'm wondering if these are troubled youth forced into community service, or maybe a church group...I'm thinkin' the former, since a church name wasn't dropped. either way, I get my drive cleared (bonus!)

last night I watch another couple episodes of 'Dexter' (good gawd! that show is warped!) and drink some beerses before crashing on the couch

later: I decide to revisit the crash site (before opening a beer and watching football), being that the weather has been half melty, and all (currently 39 degrees!), and  see the handle of my hatchet (which was stored in the bed of the truck) sticking out of the snow.  I dig around the same area to find my bass fishin' glasses, my big bottle of power steering stop-leak, my big bottle of fuel injector cleaner that I forgot I had, a spare headlight bulb still nicely in its package, and my hydraulic jack.  shweet! I'll just write the rest off, and call it a day).  now, for that beer and football game...

later yet: OK, here's the deal. I mention earlier the fact that I had bought a 12'er of beers for my neighbor, when in fact I had bought a 30 pack of cheapo's hiding 6 of them in my small fridge.  giving him 12, saving 12 in my big fridge, knowing he'd be back...and back he was.  first, he comes over while I'm trying to take a nap, 1/2 watching the Army/Navy game. I offer him a beer (this is in the early afternoon). he pounds said beer while I've got about 2 sips from my first one. I ask if he wants another.  he takes a bit longer for this one, but then asks for a "roady" (one for the road) after I tell him I'm gonna take me a nap (that's 3 to about 3/4's of my first one). I take my nap, then have a couple 3 (maybe 4 or 5) beers myself while watching a documentary on dolphins via Netflix and a 4 part documentary called "the secret of you".  he just (7pm) got done stopping by with a bag full of coins, asking if I had more beers (I only have 4 beers left at this point in my big fridge.  he says he's got about $4 in coins, so I give him 3 beers, leaving me one...not counting what's in my small fridge. ya follow me so far? prob'ly not)  the math comes out to I've had 6 beers all day, he's had 15 (not counting the 3 that I had just sold him)!!!!  JESUS CHRYSLER! that's a lot of beers!! now I still have 6 beers left in my little fridge that he's not aware of, to watch the Lions lose to tomorrow, but damn!  that's a lot of beer! I had 6 yesterday, and woke up with a hangover)...I decide to count the change in the bag to see how close to $4 he was.  there was $5.60, a washer and a #8 nut. the 30 pack would have cost me $56 dollars at this ratio [5.60/3*30].  even if I include the 3 freebies during the Army/Navy game [5.60/6*30=$28]...it only cost me $18 for all 30.  I could make some money from this guy, but feel the need, instead, to let him know that he's gotta buy his own stash.  I don't wanna become a supplier to a known addict for profit. it's just not right.  I don't wish to be a Kingpin in a trailer trash legal drug cartel...'nuff sed.

all right, call me a maroon, but I took an offer that will prob'ly suck even worse than my current work condition. I'm sort of stuck between staying a "temp" at the smoke factory on days or moving on to nights with the potential to get hired in in January. I played out this scenario in my head, the minute I turned in my application some weeks ago.  "what if they only offer me a job on nights?  would I take it? should I remain a temp and stay on days?  for how long?  do I wanna get hired in at all?  the extra money/benefits/vacation/holidays would be nice" stuff like that.  it was the latter thought that swang my vote to 'yes' if asked. I can be inconvenienced for some extra cabbage/perks. not to mention the added shift premium.  so, this morning, my bosses boss tells the three newest temp welders (Ryan, Matt and I) that night shift (B shift) has two welding positions open.  I bit the bullet and grabbed one of the positions.  the other two guys turned it down.  we'll see if my move gets me hired in quicker...I start on Monday.  6:30 pm to 6:30 am.  good gawd, this isn't gonna be fun, but wait, it isn't fun now, so what do I have to lose, right?  it's gonna be a weird adjustment, but I've worked nights before and survived...now I just gotta find me a dog sitter to let her out at midnight, so she doesn't pop after crossing her legs for 13 hours. I got time to work something out this weekend.

stopped off to the local gas station to pick me up some power steering fluid (just to top off the slow leaker until I get some more stop leak) and they had these giant candy bars staring back at me on the counter, next to the register, for a buck a piece. I haven't had a snickers bar in years (not a huge candy buyer of small or huge candy).  it was a naked playboy bunny, a trip to Cancun, and a Maserati all wrapped in chocolaty goodness.  I was in bliss as I mawed the whole thing on the way home.  mmmmmmmmmmms!!!

the last three nights, I get home and there's many o'text saying: "beer me", "beer plz", "beer yo", and the like, from you know who.  Mike. I don't text back.  I got a lot on my plate working 100 hour days, and walking my dog, I'm not gonna become his daily beer taxi.

I mention in an earlier entry that my phone is deader than a doornail.  after charging it, I can get everything to work, except no one can hear me talk into it (had I mentioned this already? prob'ly). anywho. I visit Tracfones website, buy me another $20 cheapo to have delivered here, then I'll call their tech peeps and transfer my number and minutes from old to new (I had to do this once before when I washed a previous phone in the washer).

gotta make me some supper (what sounds good? I got baked beans and hotdogs...) and then hit the rack. they (work) gave me Saturday off so I'd have a real weekend before I start the night shift (cool!).  so even with this past Monday off (car crash repair day) and this Saturday off, I'll still have a check with just over 40 hours on it. 

side note to self: double check for saf-t-glass shards in hotdog packages that have been in an accident.  

worked a 10 hour day today, then stopped off to the crash site, just to find that the road plows completely covered my remaining stuff in too big of a snow bank than I care to dig out. I particularly wanted to grab that power steering stop leak, so I wouldn't have to buy another bottle...the pump's gettin' low and starting to make that familiar 'whir' sound.  oh well. I'll stop off to the gas station 'round the corner and just buy some regular steering fluid until I get the stop-leak left at the scene, or break down and buy another one (after I re-budget to include all the excitement as of late, etc.).  once home, I throw my two 70 lb bags of sand  in the back of my truck (yep, that extra weight may have prevented that crash...I normally throw them in, before the snow flies).  the added weight puts the drivers side rear tire dangerously close to the wheel well.  I get on my hands and knees and notice the crash had broken the rear bracket holding the leaf springs to the frame completely off.   great, here I was worried about the motor being ok.  looks like I gotta put some money into the leaf springs (or call it a day, and trade the ol' girl in for something a bit less beat up...an option I'll consider further, if/wlhen I get hired into the smoke factory).  dammit!  I like this truck, but I don't wanna sink a ton more money into something that's 1/2 busted and almost 15 years old.  time to do some soul searchin' (trucks have souls, right?).  damn. I could have prob'ly gotten close to $2k for it before I thrashed it.  it's worth about $500 tops ($100 trade-in value) now.....  oh well.  such is life. it's paid for itself a couple times over, over the years, so no biggy!

it didn't even dawn on me that I may have lost my prescription safety glasses in the crash, until I finally got brave enough to open the passenger door (wondering if I'd ever be able to close it again, once opened...yup. good.).  I find the glasses covered in broken glass betwixt the door and the seat (awesome!). I did, however, then realize that my favorite bass fishin' sun glasses are one, of who knows how many, MIA items.  oh well. I'll wait 'til a warmer day and scavenge the area (maybe this weekend. weather permitting).  I take a putty knife and carefully  remove shards of glass, and broken plastic from, what once was my rain deflector, then took the wet vac and sucked up all kinds of busted glass from the carpet and seats.  it's starting to clean up nice. it looks tons better.  I drive it to work today, and of course, like I said yesterday, it was mighty cold, but it's not a long drive to work, and the heater works faster and better since my radiator flush and fill, almost keeping up with the cold draft (enter beer joke here).  I pull a 12 hour shift, head home, and right away I remove the cat box and food from my bedroom and set him up in the kitchen.  last night (and a couple other nights), he woke me up twice by pawing endlessly at his kitty box...good gawd kitty! bury it and let me get back to sleep!.  it's bad enough I get sneezed at by a dog who wants outside in the dead of night....

I re-hook my trickle charger up to my truck battery, because it was turning over kind of slow at works parking lot. I'll let it charge over night.  otherwise, no problems (engine wise...knock wood *fist knocking against skull*)

gotta find something to eat, take a shower, then hit the rack.

see, now I should have known better than to mock God (see last entry).  because of my mockery, he smoted me into a ditch.  I was coming home from grocery shopping last night (spending $40),  with the night ending up costing me around $290 plus (...the 'plus' being the windshield and passenger window that I now have to replace). anyway, I was doing what I thought was a reasonable speed for the conditions, when, apparently, I hit an ice rink (and me without my Zamboni).  "black ice" I guess it's called.  now normally, it wouldn't have been a bad thing because there were only farm fields on both sides.  not a lot to hit. the bad thing, in this particular chunk of road, was the four foot ditch along side it (and the mighty oaks that I just barely missed).  once my truck started turning, there was zero control. I tried turning the wheel toward the opposite way and pumping the brakes, only to continue my swerve a whole 180 degrees.  the ditch was the scary part.  after the 180 I braced myself for the big slam. the truck came to an abrupt stop with the shattering of glass at the bottom of the ditch, passenger side of the truck now face down.  I was dangling by my seat belt with only a bumped shin.  looking down (passenger door now on the ground), I notice all my groceries are intermingled with dirt and broken glass.  in order to get out of the wreck, I had to step on the "oh shit! handle" that they place above the passenger door, then take another step on the steering wheel itself while pushing up on the drivers door and pulling myself out. there was a car just passing by at the same moment.  she was nice enough to stop and give me a ride home.  of course, I thanked her profusely for her troubles (not having any cash to give her).  she was cool "pay it forward to someone else someday...".  awesome.  once home, my phone was deader than a doornail, so I had to ask if I could borrow Mikes.  He said "cool, you can use my car too, if you need it."  I called the local towing company, and they said it'd be a good hour before he could get my truck out of the ditch (being that half the county was prob'ly pulling the same stunt).  anyway, I jump in Mikes truck and wandered back to my truck to see what kind of groceries I could save and what-not.  as I'm approaching, I see all kinds of rescue vehicles. I quickly tell them that it's my truck, no one was hurt, no worries.  the ambulance took off from there.  the cop checked my license and insurance, than asked me a couple confusing questions, to try and trip me up, in case I had been under the influence (which I hadn't), like: "what was your phone number again (for the third time), then he'd rattle off complete random numbers...I should have said "what?!  sir have YOU been drinking?", but didn't feel like being a smart ass.  anyway.  by this time the tow truck/flatbed shows up. he, surprisingly, was able to yank the truck back onto the road with amazing ease.  after giving the tow truck driver directions to my house, I get my license and info back from the cop, along with a ticket (insult to injury) for $100 for "driving too fast for conditions".   once home, I try and start the truck up (just to see what's up).  the battery makes that clicking noise (seems I left the dome light on when I left the scene). I bust out the trickle charger.  Let it charge up for a couple hours, then retry.  it starts up!  it appears at first look, that I didn't french fry the engine (that's always a good thing).  I quickly turn it off, and go to sleep. I laid awake for hours still freaked out about the incident.    today, I take the day off to call the insurance company, the bank (for other purposes...I see a transaction that I didn't make), work (to let them know that I'm not there), as well as take care of the ticket and towing reimbursement thru my insurance via snail mail.  calling around (while I still had Mikes phone) for someone here in town to give me an estimate on fixing said busted windows.  plus, I give the truck a spin (no pun intended). I watch the gauges with an eagle eye as I'm driving it around the trailer park.  it wasn't long when the oil pressure dropped completely off. I quickly head home (being almost there anyway) and grab some motor oil that I had stocked in my shed.  it almost took 4 quarts to fill it back up (!!)  I knew I had lost oil, but wow!!  after refilling, I went on another drive.  this time around the block (outside of the trailer park), holding my breath as the temp gauge went up.  I knew it'd be cool once that stopped about half way. I continue on with the motor responding as if there's no damage to it.   I just may take it a step further and drive it to work tomorrow. it'll be a cold drive with the passenger window out. but doable none-the-less...currently, I'm gonna take the dog for her walk (speaking of which, I am SO glad she wasn't with me when i ditched it...that would have been the end for her.  I guess I gotta rethink our Sunday drives to only be done on dry pavement days), then take a nap, along with stopping off at a body shop that I called earlier to get that estimate....long story, longer, this morning, I had to nervously laugh/cringe as I watch the new neighbor's SUV being backed into his driveway, by the same wrecker service.  grass and cornstalks on the roof, not unlike mine.  I guess I'm not the only dumb ass to ditch his wheels in the farmers field.  his car looks like it fared better than mine.  all told, it looks like damage (on my truck) is mainly to the front fender, and the passenger door is squished, the back tire was 1/2 flat, and the passenger side turn signal (front) and brake light lenses broken.  It's still drivable, and I don't have any broken bones, so all is good! I got lucky! (bowing ball emoticon for good luck!) oh yeah, and I was able to recover almost all the groceries (washing broken glass and dirt off from the packaging).  weirdly enough, only 3 eggs had broken out of the dozen...I did, however, lose my hydraulic jack (which I stored in the trucks bed), and my $20 bottle of power steering stop leak.  oh well. they make more. maybe I'll scavenge the area when the weather gets better...

wow. I should have taken Monday off in hind site.  I smashed my old record of 59 hours by working 65 1/2 this week!  good gawd, the torture never stops! in my last entry, you'll notice I'm all giddy about potentially getting hired in on days at the smoke factory...I'm not so giddy after only getting a 1 day weekend.  don't you need at least two days for a broken back to heal? I'll call the hospital and ask.  luckily, I didn't have to run the welder at all this past week! I guess I'm starting to sort of fit in with the beer/orgy dept.s peeps (cue; 'the lunatic has taken over the asylum').  Friday, the dept. buys us bagels again.  I get a french toast bagel and shmear it with apple Cinnamon (ummmm....spread? topping? yarmmy stuff?)

Saturday might have been the first day ever that I've included lunch meat in every meal.  cotto salami with mustard sammitch for breakfast with veggie crackers and root beer, same for lunch, grilled cheese with bologna sammitches, cottage cheese, and miller genuine draft(s) for supper.  my fridge is beyond empty (who has time to shop when I'm having such a good time at work, and what-not?).  I may make me a bologna, egg, and cheese McMuffin for breakfast this morning (and then go grocery shopping). I have about $50 left in my shrimpy budget to, at least, get the basics.  I get paid Wednesday at midnight (and that check will be huge! 65 1/2 hours! oh yeah, I already mentioned...never mind).  that's the check that I'll clear all bills with  (first week of the month/rent, second/all bills, third and forth/petrol, food, beer, underwear, silly putty, Gorgonzola, etc.) and still have enough to put a chunk away in savings.  I found out that the smoke factory will have an entire week of down time, come Christmas, so I best budget for that week as well (being I live like a poor church mouse, I prob'ly already have enough from this coming check.  did I mention 65 1/2 hours...? never mind.) 

latest netflix movies include flix on a host of topics (the environment, the Iraq war, peek oil, north Korea, etc), feeding my forever hungry brain on the conspiracy theory/fact based genre tip, and Showtimes 'Dexter' ('fiction, drama, dark comedy,  horror'. up to season one, episode 4).  this series is beyond twisted!  it seems there's 5 seasons of this cool show, so I'll be watching,  much like I did when I got into the first 5 seasons of 'LOST' (which, btw, you can watch for free via hulu.com). 

so Friday night, after a long days worth of work, and a good pooperdog walk, I realized that I was completely out of Rosie pooperdog food, so I ran out to quickly grab some at the store...there's no such thing as quickly shopping at 5:30pm on a Friday, weeks before Christmas, so I head to the expensive pet store for convenience sake.  seems they were overly crowded as well.  oh well.  it's a small store. I run in and grab a bag of food, and as I'm pulling it off the shelf, a bumper sticker falls onto the floor.  seems a radio station (Q99...a religious format station) was promoting something at the moment. I pick the sticker off the floor and it has "5 dollar gift card" written on the back.  I take it up to the counter, and get $5 off the dog food (bringing the price down to what I would have paid, had I shopped at my normal grocery store).  it must have been God's will to give this Atheist a discount (wait for it....).  it's a gift card sent from heaven itself (all right, I'm done mocking). I pick up a kitty pooper scooper as well, being that I accidentally threw out the old one, during the last scoopage of the poopage (prob'ly too tired from work, to know better, that the scoop itself doesn't have to get thrown out too...)

otherwise. nothing new under the sun (uhhh...what sun? seems it's been gray forever already).  work, sleep, work, sleep, work (lather, rinse, repeat).

GO LIONS!!! 

40 hours down so far this week, a potential 24 to go (supposed to work a 12'er Friday, and another Saturday, but most times when that's posted, they let us go early Friday, and cancel Saturday.  we'll see). I'm doing good with 40.  I had that weird fear that I'd be asked to go home early on a daily basis, but he only asked me that early Monday morning.  I'm working on 4 way final's line, and Tammy (our bosses boss) thanks me for helping out and being so flexible as to move here and there, etc., then she asks if I got my interview yet? I tell her that I haven't even turned in an application yet, she's all "why not?! hurry up! we're hiring a ton of peeps...[paraphrased]" then she said what I wanted to hear "we're even hiring peeps in on the current shift there on, and letting them continue doing what they've been doing".  really?!  I hand my application in the very next day.  I may be too late for this latest batch (who knows?) and what are the actual chances of me staying on A crew?  I'll find out, if, and when I get me one of those interviews. meanwhile, I'll just happily play my broken backed robotic part within the gates of Hell puppy mill robot smoke factory.

I'm so tired when I got out today (12 hours in the beer/orgy dept), that I had my truck keys in my left hand, while searching for the same set of keys with my right hand in my pants pocket, then I switch my keys from my left to my right, so I can check  my left pocket....  I had to laugh out loud at how stupid I am when I realized what I had just done.  these things happen often after most of my exhaustingly long-ass work days. sort of punch drunk and comatose. I'm glad my truck has auto-pilot so I can nap on the way home.

after getting home, the pooperdog and I take a smallish walk so she can do her thang.  the roads are sheer ice.  looks like winter's here.

I figured it was just a thanksgiving week thing, but the boss, once again, comes up to me this Monday morning (a half an hour into the shift) and says: " we're a bit overstaffed how would you like to go home?".  I think I disappointed him a bit when I came back (for the first time) with a "nah, I took way too much time off last week. I gotta make some of that time up".  that's the first time I turned down going home when asked...I think I'm losing my slack appeal (whatever that means?).  he finds a couple other takers and throws me around to learn a ton of new jobs in the beer/orgy dept.  they've got an hourly rotation in this giant horse shoe shaped dept encircled with a wide arrangement of machines and fixtures.  normally, they have me run the same two machines all day. now they have me within the rotation, learning almost all of the positions. it's kind of cool! and I'm not breaking my back on the recliner welder!  we were happily trucking along when the boss runs over and hollers "stop! everyone clean up and go home!" at around 3pm (unusually early to let everyone go).  I speak with Isidro (pronounced ee-see-dro). he seems to know why, but his English is beyond pigeon.  I just assume he's pointing at over stock, or bad parts. (I gotta learn Spanish! I'm missing more than 1/2 the conversations 'round the shop because I don't know it.  nothing like feeling left out...and no, it's not that 'are they talking bad about me' paranoia. it'd just be fun to fit in better and communicate with twice the peeps. maybe I'll hunt down a free website that teaches it)

pooperdog and I take us a smallish walk when I got back home.  I decide to turn the coffee pot on (not a big fan of afternoon coffee, but for some reason it tastes delicious at the moment).  gotta hit the floor and do some more yoga like stretches. my  back feels a bit tight.  that stretching routine helps a LOT~

after a long weekend, my back seems to have gotten the rest it needs. I wake up this morning, put the dog outside to do her thang, do some more yoga like stretches, and get ready for another enjoyable day at the smoke factory. ready, set, go!

uh oh.  Mike (the neighbor who hit the bottle again, and has been pulling a no-show at work for some 3 weeks) hints that he needs a place to crash, being he now can't afford that trailer he's in (year lease rental $550/month).  good gawd, am I running a damn hostel? no. the last time we had 3 peeps in this smallish wood-panel submarine, it was a huge stress (not to mention utility bills went thru the roof)!  nope. unless you're family (or even a friend who finds it important to find and stay at a job), but not Mike (I've only known the guy for less then a half a year when he moved into the trailer park).  I'm not judging him on his drinking, or even him being unemployed, it's the fact that he's had plenty of chances to get his job back at the smoke factory (according to Zo...a full timer who says they've bent over backwards to excuse the time off he's taken.  if he'd only come back and stay back to work. of course, that was last weeks news. I'm sure they forgot his name by now, since the dumb-ass didn't comply).  weird part is, he (Mike) still talks about his old job in the present tense (as if he still works there!). has he lost his mind?! I'm guessin' YES.  since that day [Friday] of beer drinkin' and watchin' football, he must have called me about 15 times!  I turn the ringer off and hide my phone, and play as if I lost the damn thing somewhere, to try and get him to fuck off a bit (wait, that's not exactly the words I wanted to...yeah. yes it is. never mind).  he's become a damn pest. I know that sounds cold, but I've seen this kind before (yeah, here comes the judgmental part). I had a friend from work (years ago...i can't even remember his name anymore), who quickly gains your friendship, then exploits it all for his gain (on top of many o' favor, the guy, after confiding in me that he doesn't know how to read English, even wanted me to teach him that! can you imagine asking a friend something so daunting as learning a language?! ...and not just any language, the one you pretty much need to know in order to survive. here I'm tryin' to dog paddle through my own smallish bullshit problems, and you want me to do what?! that kind of "favor" is beyond overwhelming! they make teachers for that, haven't you heard? find one. it's not gonna be me!).  that friendship ended with a lesson learned about that type of personality, and that's exactly the same vibe (for lack of a better word) that I get from Mike.  to them, "friend" equals 'you help me survive no matter the cost to you'.  I can see the same pushy  signs...meanwhile, I'm trying to lose that door mat personality that I so easily slip into.

anyway. next time I talk to Mike, I gotta let him know that it makes me hugely uncomfortable when he hints about moving in...it just can't happen!

how about those Lions.  now they're 2 wins, 8 losses for the season.  it's not like they're playing badly (which has been the case for the past...how many seasons?).  they looked great against the Patriots defensively (at least for the first 3 quarters), and Shawn Hill was kickin' ass as the back-up quarter back (Stafford on IR for his shoulder), but they just can't get a break!  they were ahead by half time, but simply ran out of gas by the end of the game. the final score was 49 to 28.  why can't they have another game like that Jets game earlier on?  they killed 'em 44 to 12 (or some such shellacking).  they've got a good line-up (offense and defense), they're looking good, they play hard, yet they're not putting any 'w's on the board. (...and the Lions fans sing in chorus; "maybe next year").

my theory about my next door neighbor Mike (falling off that AA wagon) is now pretty much factual. He came over the other night, pretty lit, asking if I had any "extra" beer (is there such a thing?) that he could buy, being that tomorrow was a holiday, and he needed some to watch the Lions lose to. I happen to buy me a 30 pack that day (hoping that could last me all or most of my long weekend).  he buys 10 from me, for 10 bucks  it was a box of cheapo beer to begin with. I don't think I paid much over 10 for the whole 30. I tell him to keep his money, but he throws it on the couch on the way out the door.  all right. now that I've been paid, I truly feel like an "enabler".  he'd have drained his antifreeze from his SUV and drank that if I didn't "help" (or not).  I guess I shouldn't feel guilty about being his supplier. I've been off and on that damn wagon many times myself, but it's got to be 40 times (random figure) harder to fall off that long term AA wagon...I've never been a fan of the whole AA concept. it focuses too much on religion (which I'm not a huge believer in), and emotion (forced to sit and listen to others babble emotionally/cry about their story).  plus it prob'ly cost something for said waste of time. now having said all that, I'm sure there's a very small percentage of peeps who went through the program and actually were "cured", but overall, once again, I think (just my 2 cents) it's a waste of time.  especially someone who's forced (court order) to go through it. k, 'nuff sed.

pretty cold out lately (duh, it's November!).  first half of November seemed mild. this past week sees those degree numbers go way down (currently 27F...brrrrrrr). I'll be bitchin' about this more, as that white stuff flies and I actually gotta dig my shed door open to get to the snow shovel.

so, my application for the smoke factory sits on my computer desk and stares me in the face.  it was last Sunday when I filled it out.  I can't bring myself to turn it in.  It's very much like when I worked at Grand Rabbits Spring and Stamping (another hellish metal welding smoke factory that I got through a temp service). once I had the opportunity to get hired in, I didn't want to, so I didn't (which, in turn, got me to my next assignment, the boat factory...a good job). I guess I'll ride this one out as a temp.  my main concern is that, once hired in,  I'll have to do 12 hour days on the night shift.  who's gonna let pooperdog out to do her thang at 1am? not a sane person. most of my insane neighbors (as well as my room mate) work nights too.  also, I don't wanna be in a hurry to jump into a job that I truly dislike (it wouldn't be fair to me or them).  now, my crystal ball (having had dead batteries since 1983) could tell me that I'm in for worse if I don't take this one, but I don't think they come much worse. I have little praise for this back breaking smoke factory.  sure, it's work (and with work, comes ways to stay afloat financially), but there has got to be better soon (too optimistic? prob'ly).  meanwhile, this long weekend is excellent for the recovery of said busted back

here's hopin' everyone had a good turkey thinger (I had leftover chicken helper).  wait, what were we celebrating? the pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a eat, celebrating a bountiful harvest, only to have the white man almost completely eradicate the "savages" in the years following? great. thanks. . k, how'd I become such a damn cynic.

it wasn't even worth waking up this morning...wait, let me start again. I may have well just slept in this morning, had I known that they'd ask me to leave a half hour into the shift. I guess I made a good $4 ($2 after taxes) today, of which I already spent on the drive home.  every day Pablo shows up to work with this bagel sammitch that always looks so delicious.  he sits and eats it before the shift starts. meanwhile, I'm usually drooling and my stomach grumbles from too much coffee. I had to know where he got it, and what it was called. "the place is right around the corner, in the plaza. the sandwich is called asiago omelet".  I figure it wouldn't hurt to stop in and try one myself, since I hadn't eaten breakfast yet today.  I get one to go, so I can share some with the pooperdog.  it has melted cheese, turkey, and roasted red peppers.  it's as delicious as it looks! pooperdog enjoys some melted cheese topped turkey herself.

so this weeks total hours come to 14 (my calculations from yesterday included working a 1/2 day today, but since it was only a 1/2 hour...) with 2 unpaid holiday days and no work on Saturday.  that's about $117 (gross)! luckily last weeks check (that I see has already arrived via direct deposit) was a whopper, so I'll simply budget the next 2 weeks using the sum of both added together, divided exactly in 2.  that way I won't be surprised when the shrimpy check arrives...problem solved.  I've developed some pretty creative budgeting techniques over the years that will also go into play, if need be.  instead of paying off my bills as they come in, I can change the e-bill payer to the bills actual due date, and still get them paid on time, on a week when there's more income.  stuff like that. I'd give you more tips, but I'm already getting bored. the good news is I don't have to work again 'til next Monday!  I'll have to stop in to my favorite beer store and grab me some beerses, so as I can have me couple 3 whilst watching the Lions lose (again!) tomorrow.

speakin' of beers, I see they finally demolished my old hang out.  yep, that place that got me my DUI is now lying in rubble.  I knew they'd get theirs one day for getting me busted.  those bastards should have known when to stop drowning me in blue moons.  nah. just kiddin' (of course).  it was my own damn fault. I was a maroon to even get within 100 ft of something with a steering wheel that night.  I call it my "$3000 taxi ride" being that instead of paying $20 for a real taxi, I paid $3000 via the cop car ride to the drunk tank.  someone shoot me if I do that again.  I hear a story [on NPR] that some 35,000 people a year, in Michigan alone, take the "$3000 taxi" ride (exponentially more if there's an accident involving injury or death).  damn, that's a lot of peeps. then, you prob'ly multiply that number by (who knows? 10 maybe? more?) to get the actual number of peeps driving drunk that don't get caught.  staggering! (hah...PUN!). anyway. Rosie's beggin' to be walked. best go take care of that, so she can do her thang.