the merciful metal framed car seat gawds let us go an hour and a half early (or at our "normal time"...5pm, instead of working us like dogs for the complete 12 hours).  I was thrown on recliner welder #2 again all day. this time we ran the infamous Pilot parts, which, if you'd read in one of my past entries, you'd know are a bitch to run compared to Accord frames.  I stop off at my favorite beer store, on the way home, for a couple clam beers (Budweiser makes a Clamato style brew that is most delicious!). Once home, I make me some chicken helper broccoli noodle shite (using leftover chicken, leftover bratwurst, and some leftover bacon...mmmmmms! it turned out delicious!). I devour said delectable supper (throwing left overs into tupperware for tomorrows lunch) while watching a rerun of yesterdays Jon Stewart's Daily Show (I love when he mocks Glenn Beck with the glasses and chalkboard!!) and the Colbert report.  good stuff! I normally catch up on the news as well, but after 2 Clamatos, I'd rather not.  tomorrow, it seems we have a half a day before the big holiday, so this weeks check ought to only reflect about 19 1/2 hours.  we'll find out tomorrow if Saturday can at least make it a 29 1/2 hour check, but I'm thinkin' if tomorrow is a half day, they prob'ly won't have us do Saturday...oh well. I'll make up for it when they have us do another 60 (plus) hour work week.

we do a smallish pooperdog walk 'round the block. it's damn cold tonight (compared to last night, that is)! I thought I'd sneak in a xanga entry before the 8pm bell rang, then hit the rack, just in case tomorrow's a full 12 hour day...

last night, I watch the first four episodes of Comedy Central's "Secret Girlfriend". I downloaded the first season. It's the funniest show I've seen since 'the Mighty Boosh'!  funny shizz!  if you have the chance, watch it! it's hilarious!

hey, what?!  who put that holiday there?  seems we get both Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving (without pay! Thanks. no word yet if we have to work Saturday.  that'd help.)...I shouldn't have been so quick to pay down debt last week.  that's ok. I got a big paycheck coming this week, from all those hours worked last week (to take care of rent and bills) so the week after that (which will reflect this weeks lame hours) should work out just right (meanwhile, I'm still going to tighten the belt a bit more...just in case.) I'm sittin' pretty good with groceries and a full tank of gas, plus about $110 in savings, so all is well.  knowing it was gonna be a short week, I still volunteer to leave early today (they don't call me dumb-ass for nothin').  I can't seem to help it. I jump on every chance I get, to get the hell out of that smoke factory, yet over this past weekend, I filled out an application to try and get in there full time (what's wrong with me?!  that place bites! the hours are mind numbing, and the work is back breaking...oh well. take what I can for now, if I get hired in, that's a couple more bucks an hour plus holiday pay, vacation pay, and benefits, but then I'll have to work nights.  good gawd! what to do? what to do?).  rumor has it that it's a "sure thing" that the Battle Creek plant will be closing its doors, not ours (but we'll see how that rumor pans out. I mention in an earlier post that we had a plant meeting where either our shop or Battle Creeks will close it's doors permanently), meanwhile I read a letter on the bulletin board saying [paraphrased] "after December 31st, all paychecks will be mailed directly to your home from that date on".  that seems kind of fishy.  isn't it a lot cheaper to have the supervisor just hand 'em out at work, like they do now?  Purcy is the one who pointed this letter out, concerned that it may be one [of many] signs that the doors will be closed for good one day. I'm with her. there are too many peeps thinking it could never happen to them.  I'll believe the Battle Creek closing when I see it, 'til then, day by day with that cautionary "never say never" approach...

pretty good sized thunder storm headin' in.  it was unusually warm today (60's). Rosie and I got a couple of walks in betwixt the rain squalls.  otherwise; power-nap (I know, for some reason I can take them again), did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, cleaned the bedroom a bit, had some leftover bar-b-que chicken and tator salad for lunch, and caught up on my ABC world news, the daily show with Jon Stewart, and the Colbert Report via hulu.com.  it was a good day, filled with both productivity and slackage!

I don't know whether it's the grueling welder #2 that I was placed on Thursday, and half of Friday, or the fact that I'm getting old (or both?), but I woke up in the middle of tonight with a blazing back ache (!!). curiously enough the right side of my jaw hurts too. I didn't do anything yesterday to aggravate either one (nothing out of the usual...no heavy lifting of any sort. no getting punched in the face) it's like everything is super tight. I do a series of yoga like stretches while waiting for pooperdog to do her thing outside.  I can't seem to relax my spine enough.  maybe some ibuprofen will settle it down a bit.  ouch!!  maybe it's because my back is used to being broken on a daily basis (at the smoke factory), and since I didn't break it yesterday (being a day off, and all), it's in revolt.  and again, it's not 'injury' type of hurt, so much. it's muscle pain that comes with exercise and over exertion (coupled with your normal aches and pains an almost 50 year old spine is going to naturally get, I'd imagine).  the jaw pain is a complete mystery, but again, nothing a couple three ibuprofen won't not uncure (...what?)

nice day yesterday.  the pooperdog and I take about a good 3 walks and a "sunday drive", and even though the fruit loop trees are now bare, the sun is at a lower angle, and the temp doesn't get over 43, it's a fine autumn day! while on one of our walks, I'm hearing a whole bunch of geese approach, looking in the direction of the honkers, I notice they are a ton of 'em, forming the largest 'V' formation I've ever seen, and seem to be flying unusually high, going in a sort of south east direction. prob'ly honking "let's get the hell out of Michigan before it get's all blustery and shit" [paraphrased. I'm not so good at translating 'honk' to English yet].

couple beers with the pooperdog and I, hangin' out on the porch, watching the first half of the U of M football game on the laptop (who won?), while grillin' some chicken.  nice day for grillin' and chillin'. later I watch a couple movies on Netflix (a lame horror  movie and an even lamer action flick starring John Claude Vandam's kid).  it was a most relaxing day! power-nap and all!

oh yeah, Ibuprofen. then sleep. maybe tomorrow (err...this morning when I wake up) my lock jaw and spinal atrophy will be diminished, at best (bowling ball emoticon to the rescue!)

damn, it seems weird leaving work while there's still sunlight out.  even when we're let go "early" (the time we're supposed to get out. 5pm) it's just turning dusk.  they let us go real early today (12:30), giving us a weekend plus! I stop off to fill the tank on the truck (41 bucks) then head to my favorite beer store for a 12'er of suds, then while home, I do some much needed online banking. I figure in a smallish amount to get me by for this week, then what ever is left, I divide up to pay things like my home improvement Credit card debt, and hospital bill (cracked throat thing), ending up spending a good $185 towards paying down debt (shweet!).  it won't be long and I'll be back in black (no, not AC/DC highway to hell bound...I'm talkin' zero debt, once again).  now I know I blathered on at one point or another, about the evils of credit cards, but I just couldn't get myself to chop up the hardware store card, due to the store carrying everything under the sun, in case, say, one of my appliances goes on the blink, or my water heater takes a poop.  they carry all that stuff (meanwhile, that's the only place I can use that card, so I'm not tempted to use it everywhere else, like a normal Visa/Mastercard).  it's been good in the past as well, for redoing my shed, the roof, my porch, interior paint and trim, etc.,  so it can only benefit me to hang on to that one.  every other card I had saw the fate of the scissors months/years ago, including my Best Buy card (that one was a REAL tough one to cut up!).  anyway. I'm boring you (and myself) with finances again...I think I'll take me a smallish power-nap...I've worked a Godzillian hours. I'm thinkin' I deserve a little R@R

once again, they (da smoke factory) had mercy on us, and let us out an hour and a half early.  I stop off at Autozone again, and grab another bottle of power steering stop leak (I know, I said I'd bring it back to the fix-it shop, if that first bottle of stop leak didn't work...it DID work, but not all the way. it slowed the leak to a small drip. now I'll alter my first thought to include a second bottle.  then I'll bring it back in (or buy another bottle, depending on how lazy I get). plus, the first bottle I used up said "money back guarantee". I still have the receipt as well as the empty bottle (I'll see what all's involved in said guarantee). maybe I'll get my $20 back (20 clams is a lot of money!).  while at Autozone, I pick up a pair of head light bulbs (another $20) 'cause the passenger side bulb done burnt out. I get home, crack me a beer, give my little mammals hugs, let Rosie outside to do her thang, and replace the headlight bulb, by the light of the kitchen lamp thru the front bay window. I also top off the power steering (and all is well).

gonna find me something for supper, and watch yesterdays Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and ABC world news via hulu.com...

it appears Mike (neighbor who'd been sick for all last week) pulled a no-show yet again today and yesterday...I'm thinkin' his time at the smoke factory done be up.  my rumor that I almost didn't wanna start about him hittin' the bottle again, is strongly supported by the garbage that he'd thrown into my garbage can whilst it was over at his place.  I didn't plan to be that nosey, but I wanted to consolidate trash from both my new can and old into one, so the junk truck wouldn't have to dump both, and while emptying the one that was at his place into my new can, there were many a wine bottle cartons in the bottom (something I hadn't placed in there before it was lost).  it prob'ly would be considered inadmissible evidence if it were a court case, but strong enough to support my theory . [ed. note: I, of course, will only place said theory here on this page, and not spread my findings to anyone else...being that it wouldn't be cool to "front page news" the guys bidness 'round the trailerhood and work...that's what's cool about xanga. I can air things out, using different names, and not feel like a complete slanderer (word?)]

seems my beer drinking skills (honed over the past 2 years of being unemployed) have simply flown the coupe, being that I only drink on weekends now.  my tolerance is way down, meaning it doesn't take as much to get a glow-on, the bad news is it's a different kind of glow...I fall asleep quicker and wake up with my head feeling as if I drank a 55 gallon drum of 101 proof vodka.   it kind of sucks! I want my bad liver back!.  and speakin' of drinkin', the dog and I were porch sittin', me with my laptop and a coldey (last night), and heard that all too familiar barfing sound from behind 'across the way, Jay's place (yep. he seemingly never lost that 'party 'till ya puke' attitude, that most people drop when they're in their 20's...and he's in his 50's!).  he takes his beer drinking (and shots of what look like NyQuil) seriously.  oh well. he's a good guy.  and while we're on the subject of neighbors, I notice my cutie Asian neighbor girl (Kat) hasn't moved her car from her driveway in weeks (I know this because the rear driver side tire has been flat for that long).  she's a good one at being gone for weeks at a time anyway (maybe living at her boyfriends?) so I'm not wondering if she's dead, or nothing, but Mike (two doors east of me), on the other hand...I wonder how he's doing. he's the guy that had the hernia operation, then went back to work too soon, re-injuring himself, but would continue to boast that he's got a huge number of 12 hour days in a row in, at the smoke factory.  well, he never showed up for work last Monday, so I gave him a call that night and asked what was up? he sounded sicker than a dog, so I stopped calling him for fear I'd wake him up while he was nursing said sick-o-ness.  Tuesday rolls around, his place is dark and his car is still in the driveway (he usually leaves for work before I do).  Wednesday comes and goes...same thing.  Thursday...same (I'd get updates by a co-worker that he'd text on a daily basis, so I'd know if he's still kickin'). Friday (DUDE, does this guy have Typhoid?!  who's sick for a complete week?!). Saturday. nope. I'll stop in today and be that nosey neighbor guy. here's hopin' he hasn't lost his job (I'm suspecting the temp agency doesn't take too kindly to peeps taking an entire week off for a cold).  and here he was complaining about having to work two weeks solid, just to make rent.  dude, ya can't make money being sick for a whole week.  I'll let you know what I find out...if I wanted to start a rumor about him, I'd say he fell off the wagon and hit the bottle again, he's an AA member who's been battling crippling alcoholism for a long time (so his story goes), but I don't wanna spread that rumor, so pretend I didn't write that last sentence (thank you)...seems alcohol and the trailer life generally go hand in hand.

man!  someone's up early! Sunday seems to bring out the big guns (literally).  the rifle range next door must open at 7am.  someone's shooting what sounds like mortar fire. every now and then, I swear I hear a machine gun.  prob'ly members of the infamous Michigan Militia practicing for their gov't take over.  I remember when I first moved into this park, I wasn't aware there was a rifle range next door, so I'd wonder what hillbilly trailer trash was on a shooting spree (redneck rampage).  someone prob'ly could get away with murder, peeps assuming that the gun fire was from next door, and what-not...I do my once a month walk around, checking the wood-panel submarine for shot gun blasts and the like, just in case

more coffee, followed by something to eat, then a couple beers to watch the LIONS lose, help Brian move a couch, throw in some pooperdog walks, and maybe a power-nap (if needed), etc. will round off today's exciting events...then get ready for another installment of Robot puppy mill smoke factory fun starting tomorrow

MORE COFFEE!!

 later: cleaned the shed, moving all my stuff to one half, so as Brian can store his crud in the other half, moved a homemade shelving thinger out of my bedroom (into the shed) and made room for squabber's cat box and food, so as Brian doesn't have to trip over that in his room. installed some wall mounted shelves that the 'squatch left behind. did some dishes, swept the kitchen, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, shoveled the dog poops out of that minefield of a yard, went to the store for the sicky neighbor (picked up a news paper for him), and while dropping it off, I see what looks to be my garbage can by his shed. "dude is that mine?!". he knows nothing about it being he's been sick all week. maybe some kids were messin' around (we'll go with that).  now I gotta call my trash service and let them know they can have the spare can (the one they just dropped off to replace the old one) back.  took me a power-nap during the Lions game (they lost...SURPRISE, SURPRISE!) couple of beers, some chicken helper noodly shite with broccoli, and a pooperdog walk, or two. it were a most relaxing day. I heard nothin' from Brian about helping him move his couch...some other day, I guess. not a biggie.

worked a sixer today, bought a 12'er on the way home, did some food shopping, and got me hair cut. the lady gave me that special dumb and dumber look. Brian (cool hippie ladies son) stops by today. we use my truck to haul some big stuff into his room (did I mention he's renting the back room? prob'ly).  got the big screen TV, his bed, and a couple other odds and ends before it started raining too hard.  we'll continue tomorrow with his couch, then he says, he can get the rest of the small shit with his car (cool!). 

whoa. laptop battery is gettin' low [hit's "save", goes and gets the power cord]

later:  pooperdog walk, and a droll movie from Netflix starring elijah woods called 'the Oxford murders'...I fell asleep. 'nuff 'sed.

While at the store today, I get approached by a guy who says "well hello stranger!" (red flag #1). I look at him and say, "I know you, but I don't know you". he says "it's bob from (points at my boat factory shirt that I'm wearing)"...I'm still at a loss, so he continues "I briefly worked with you guys near the end of the layoffs, I don't blame you for not remembering me, I used to have a full beard and mustache".  we yacked for awhile. it seems he still works there helping out the engineering dept.   near the end of our yackage, he asks me for my phone number (red flag #2) and wants to know if I'd like to do coffee sometime (red flag #3. weird request, especially for someone who wasn't recognized...but ok, I guess?). I let him know that'd be groovy, and give him my number (he dials the number, then quickly hangs up saying "now you got my number" red flag #4).  he splits, then (and only then) does it dawn on me that I might have just been hit on by a dude.  who asks another guy to go do coffee unless they want to get to know ya better? good gawd!  now maybe I'm being too presumptuous.  maybe he's just that 'get together with old acquaintances' kind of guy?   who knows. I won't judge him (although, I just did), but I know I won't be calling him either.  no offense dude.  I had a similar "encounter" at the bar years ago.  as I was walking toward the men's room, a man at the bar asked if he could buy me a drink. being half in the bag, I said "sure" ('cause why not, right?).  he said "really?". not knowing the extent of his question, I said yes, then invited him to a game of pool (after I finished my quest to use the can), 'cause a friend and I were ruling the table.  after using the bathroom, I head back. he's already racking the balls and saying "I can't wait to get you home!"   "wait, WHAT?!...",  I was commended later by the bar tender lady who overheard the whole thing on how I handled the situation. she said "anyone else would have punched the guy in the face (being that homosexuality was still somewhat taboo back in the early nineties and it being a redneck bar, and all)". I had more of an apologetic approach for misunderstanding his cues (pun intended...cues. pool table. never mind).  it's somewhat flattering to be hit on, but come on! let's let the next hit be by a lovely girl (please?! even then, you'd prob'ly get turned down, out of shyness, but hey, It would boost an already low esteem *still waiting for Linda O'neil to arrive naked at my door with a case of beer*). [apologies if I had all ready conveyed this last bar story within the 6 years of journeling. I'm sure I repeat a lot of dumb stuff.  wait! why am i being apologetic again? it's my journal. I'll repeat if I wanna]

I try a different mindset approach at work, even though it's brain draining and back breaking, I still feel as though my bad attitude about the long hours isn't helping my overall current unhealthy mindset. I (firstly) try and stay away from Percy (who has been there for 11 years and is the quickest to poopoo the long hours).  it's easy to get into dissenter mode when you have someone who backs up and encourages your rebellious thoughts.  I realize that the more I protest (along with Percy) about the crappy hours, the more I wanna grumble about it and have it fester in my brain while working said long hours.  so instead, I try and focus harder to be that guy who doesn't bitch (as hard as it may be...).  I know that if I continue to be like Percy it'll only stir up more dissenters....i gotta make it a conscious point to be that guy who isn't that guy who stirs it up.  no one likes that person who over stresses the obvious.  I gotta find a real focus...and speaking of Percy. we have cultures from many nations working the beer/orgy dept.  for the longest time, I wondered why some of my Asian friends would holler "pussy".  seems it wasn't long that I found out that they were in fact hollering for Percy (meanwhile, there's nothing better than a lovely Asian girl hollering "pussy" for no apparent reason).  they seemingly can't pronounce the 'r', yet Vaughn (an Asian man) says:" maybe we'll get out of here by trelve today".  it took me a minute to let "trelve" sink in before I figured out he meant twelve.  so you can't say the 'r' in 'Percy' but you  can pronounce your 'w's as an 'r'....shweet! I guess I'd only really understand if I were to learn their native tongue (which I won't be doing real soon. if anything I should learn Spanish).  we have a lot of peeps that speak the most broken of English one can imagine. you got to really focus hard in order to catch what some of these peeps are sayin'.  it's gotta be tough for them to communicate what they're thinkin'.  the cultural diversity is cool! the people RAWK, the jobs themselves are ok (mostly.  some more back breaking than others), but the hours suck! (wait, I just said I was gonna work on that attitude)

Thursday's 12 hours seemed to last a damn week (as 12'ers always do)! I had a bowl of cereal before I went in, a half a peanut butter sammitch during my 9am break, the other half at noon. needless to say, I was running on fumes by the end of the day.  being the day before paydeay, my fridge was lookin' pretty bare, so I slid over to Subway on my way home and bought me a footlong crispy chicken sub with everything they had piled on to it.  I sat and ate the whole damn thing (that's just how fuel depleted I was!).  it felt good to crash with a full belly...today (Friday) they finally threw me back on welder #2 for the first half of the day. second half was spent in the beer/orgy dept.  I didn't bring a lunch because we all chipped in for some pizza.  again, with just a bowl of cereal at 5am, I was famished by noon, so I did me a gob of pizza.  everyone snarfed gobs of pizza. it was yarmmy!  they had mercy on our broken backed souls and let us out into the fresh air by 5pm.  tomorrow only looks like a half a day (hurray!!) and no Sunday work (so far. unless we don't make rate tomorrow).  

otherwise.  clean the house a bit (it's sorely needed after so many hours of neglect).

the welder gawds must have been listening, here it is the end of Wednesday, and I've done everything but weld. k, that's not the whole truth, I welded today, but on a much smaller, less ass busting welder. yesterday, I was in the beer/orgy dept working a couple machines (while drinkin' a couple of beers), and Monday, I worked in "final" (yeah, I don't know what that means either, but it was cool!  no welding, no broken back.  shweet! the air tools in "final" are cool! they tell you "good job" every time you drive a nut successfully (you'd think they'd have this feature in the beer/orgy section). the guy that's taken over welder #2 is bitchin' up a storm about it, as I did in my first days...then you become a zombie robot that conforms to the tedious back breaking smoke factory routine (maybe they got it set up just for that purpose.  like breaking in a green horse until it complies).  anyway. it's been a good week. long hours, but no #2 welder!  looks as if we work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (12'ers). I've heard nothing about Sunday. let's hope that's good news!

so I come home last night, give the pooperdog a smallish walk 'round the block, and come home with a bag of poop (hers, not mine) that I expected to throw into the trash can before walking onto the porch...seems either someone swiped it, or my account has been frozen (for whatever reason). I call (after hours) and leave a message, they call back today, leaving a message back saying it was prob'ly picked up accidentally. they'll look into it (good!). I hope no one from around here corn cobbed it. that'd piss me off good

silly pooperdog's snoring away on her sleeping bag, next to my desk...cute li'l ol' booger.

despite the 430 some odd dollars I spent on my truck last month, I'm (somehow) able to still make rent and pay all this months bills within the first weeks check.  tomorrows check will be good sized as well.  maybe I'll buy some work pants.  those belts I bought before I started work, all ready need new holes punched in 'em due to me losing weight.   when I went thru this years ago, I called it my "manpower" diet.  I'm using a different temp agency now, but it's pretty much the same. I'm about 25 lbs lighter than when I started.  this is now my bottom limit.  any lower, and I'll start adding Big Macs and buckets of fried chicken to my diet

gotta do a bit of laundry and maybe clean up that kitchen before hittin' the rack...ready, set, go!

do some online banking, make payments toward a smallish hardware store credit card thinger ($13.27 to be subtracted from a $133.27  current balance towards the restoration of kitchen,  bathroom, shed, roof, porch, etc.), double check payment schedules on my bill-pay for utilities, etc..

[blank stare] that's just like a bank for ya. a couple 3 weeks ago, I (as you've read) went thru the hell  of changing from a debit card paycheck (thru my temp agencies bank) to direct deposit into my own bank, meanwhile being paid late with paper checks, accruing overdraft fees, etc, blah, blah. anyway, now that that's out of the way, I look into closing the original debit paycheck card, so I'm not surprised later with an "inactive account fee" (yes! it's on the sheet that came with the card, along with 15 other potential fees.  this particular fee is $3/month...FOR NOT USING THE ACCOUNT. good gawd!).  seems I gotta send their bank photocopies of 2 pieces of ID and my left arm to close the account down.  and speakin' of fees, I accrue one more delayed fee from my own bank (on top of the fees I mentioned previously) because I took money out of savings and put it into checking to try and stop an overdraft protection account fee from kicking on, meanwhile, my savings then dips just below the minimum $50 mark, so they charge me a "maintenance fee".  unbelievable! fee'd to death! now, I'm only talkin' $5 here, $10 there, but you get enough of them on an already stretched budget, it becomes significant.  fockin' banks! and we helped bail 'em out! they could help us little people out by getting rid of so many damn fees . on the other hand,  I guess the convenience of free automatic bill-pay sort of evens things out (not having to buy stamps, envelopes, etc., but still...k, 'nuff sed. rant over)

I've been paying off my throat crack (hospital) bill for a good couple of years now ($55/month toward a $301. current balance), via the phone, but being that I currently work all hours of the day, I haven't been able to catch Beverly (hospitals accountant) lately. I guess I'll have to find me a stamp and envelope to send a check for this one, or bring my phone and bank card to work (which I'd rather not do).  once my hardware store card and my hospital bill is gone (grand total of $366 after I mail said check to the hospital), I'll, once again, be debt free!

wow! that's a lot of bland nothingness about finances *yawn!* .  I guess ones gotta be forever vigilant (anal retentive) about such things or otherwise lose focus...

headed to my favorite beer store for a 12'er of suds yesterday. they just keep hiring the prettiest girls there (what's up with that?!).  there's two peeps workin' the counter. one's a lovely blonde girl with a 'Guess' shirt on.  of course, I wanted to be a dork and walk up to the counter saying "lovely girl?...your shirt says guess. did I guess right?" (i know, corny, right?), but she was busy with another customer...I know one of them (haven't seen her lately) is the owners daughter. she has the prettiest color eyes. lovely girl. good gawd. I guess it's time I find me a girlfriend. it sucks being that overtly shy guy with a self defeating personality and low self esteem, I guess that's part of the hermit code.

I watch a pretty good Kung Foo movie last night on Netflix whilst swilling the grog. it was called 'Ip man' (or some such thing). I dug it! tons of cool kung foo action. 2 thumbs up!

I haven't heard from the Kid in a spell.  maybe I'll give him a holler today and see how's he's doin'

otherwise, pooperdog walks (amongst the now bare fruit loop trees), beer drinkin' , Netflix watchin' and sadly no power-nappages (weirdly enough, it's hard for me to nap anymore.  maybe it's because of my grueling work routine?)

[old picture of McCheeese. look at all the old room mates junk in the background...I'm still trying to figure out why I can't upload new pics?  bare with me. I'm determined to figure this shite out]

seems within the time span between 3:06 to 3:11pm yesterday, there was a visitor from Slovakia that opened every tag and every entry (prob'ly some kind of bot sniffing for who knows what?), and (here's the scary part) added tags to some of my entries (how'd it manage that?!).  I had a similar situation last week.  there'd be the common 1 or 2 footprints (a good friend from Mini-Soda and my sis), then 378 footprints from the Republic of Russia.  I don't mind sniffer bots, but not knowing what they're sniffing for is kind of unnerving (personal information? I try and keep most things personal as vague as possible).  maybe I should limit the use of the word 'beer orgy', in case its a porn sniffer bot.  whatever. it's prob'ly harmless...

I try and retrain my mindset about work (try and not be so negative and grumpy), so as I'm not feeling so uninspired and robotic.  it's so easy to fall into a somewhat depressing coma while busting a hump for 10 to 12 hours doing the same robot 2 step without an MP3 player to distract said thoughts.  I try and come up, instead, with some stand up comedy, then wish I had a pen to write some of it down within the 3 spare seconds I have betwixt cycles. I can't remember any of it now. oh well, it would have killed.  just as we were finishing up the day, the "boss" comes around and says "expect to work the entire week next week, so we can have Thanksgiving off".  nice.  THANKS.  I'm thinkin' my record week of 59 hours will be shattered next week.  good gawd! can I do it?  it'll take every shred of mental toughness I can muster (and more).  'across the way, Jay' says he embeds his favorite porno into his cerebral cortex, and replays that when he feels the need to be inspired to keep on keepin' on while doing his robot routine where he works (not a bad idea). I guess everyone has there own way to draw attention away from the droll routine. I tell Norma (the girl that works with me on welder 2) that I consider this more 'punishment' than I do work, what did I do wrong?  she answers "you had 2 years off...you're being punished for that!".  norma's  cool.  she's been there for some 14 years (14 years X 12 hour days x 6 to 7 days a week=59 "regular" working years.  k, my math's not so good, but you get the idea).

I call the cool hippy ladies kid ('cause he left a note askin' if I worked today, and if not, maybe help him move some of his bigger stuff from storage into the back room), but he's not feelin' up to movin'.  maybe tomorrow...here's hopin' he doesn't wait 'til there's six feet of snow before "feeling up to it". anyway.

'across the way, Jay' stops over with a steak (uncooked).  "what is it my birthday?!". "nah, they were on sale...I bought a bunch of 'em. that one's yours".  cool.  we sit and bullshit for a half an hour, him, with his shot of something that looks like cough syrup and 2 beers, and me with my beer.  after he splits, I clean the shack a bit.  I gotta find a new home for the cat food, and litter box, being that they're currently in the room Brian wants to rent. hmmmm...where can they go where the dog won't mess with it?? maybe my bedroom? bathroom?  I'll figure out something.

power-nap is needed. ready, go!

day 3 (34 hours) on welder #2, so far, this week.  I did this LAST week. everyday gets tougher. tomorrow will be beyond torture.   I gotta look for my T-shirt that has a guy screaming on front and says "THE TORTURE NEVER STOPS!" I'm thinkin' that would be apropos for work.  At the beginning of the day (today), they told me to switch every hour with Dan (new guy) on welder #1 (cool! I'll get to work on my cycle time on the easy welder...I'm not as lightning fast as Ryan on that one, he's the one who runs that welder the most)  I do my hour on welder #2, then when 8am rolled around.  Dan and I switch, I get about maybe 20 minutes into it, when the boss says "we're gonna switch you back, we need your expertise because the frames on welder 2 are hot"  shit. I ran the damn thing (into the ground) for the rest of the day (a good 11 hours worth).  5pm break rolls around, and I was beyond whooped! anyway. the good news is we have Saturday off this week!  k, 'nuff about work. it bites. but I'm surviving it. after work, I hit the store for some food. I was about out of everything (once again).  make me some clam chowder with some buffalo wings/blue cheese flavored kettle chips and a piece of bread mitt butter unt a glass of milk for supper.  I leave about 4 clams and a little chowder for the hound. she laps the chowder like it was candy but leaves the clams. it wasn't until I hand fed her the clams that she'd even consider 'em. she's so spoiled.

do my daily small load of weldy clothes laundry and clean up the kitchen a bit while jammin' out to Pandora radio. "mouse on mars"  station (good stuff!).

gotta hit the shower and then the rack. 4:40 comes around way too early!

back to full long days of brain draining, back breaking welding. yesterday, I felt fine pulling a 12 hour stint, today, I was dead to the world before lunch. I'm guessin' one reason may be because of the sudden wake up call in the middle of last night (that's usually reserved for Rosie sneezing in my face when she wants to go potty), when my left leg pulled one of those giant hamstring cramps (you know, the ones where it hurts bad when you keep your leg straight, but are afraid to bend it at the knee, for fear you'll never get it unbent...). it was killer painful for a good 1/2 an hour, and as much as it hurt to massage it, I did anyway, knowing doing nothing prob'ly wouldn't have worked either.  those tendons that runs along both sides of the knee pit (what?  you call an arm pit, an 'arm pit', why not give the knee equal...I don't even know how to finish that sentence) were as tight as the high E string on a guitar. I don't know what I did any different at work to inflame it, but it was most unpleasant. I've heard NFL football players go to sleep the night after a big game with an IV drip so the body remains hydrated to quell the huge amounts of cramping they'd otherwise get.  maybe I was just a bit dehydrated?  anywho. I couldn't go back to sleep to save my life after the pain subsided. I must have been awake from 1am to at least 2:30am because of this.  of course, when I officially woke up (when the alarm went off 2 hours later), I felt as if I could sleep another 5 hours, but got up and dragged my ass to the robot smoke factory, and suffered the whole second half of the day (I've perfected 'sleep work').  of course, I felt fine when the "go away" bell rang. I had energy enough to bring my truck to the oil change place and get 'er changed, along with a flush and fill for my radiator.  it was expensive, but it needed to get done. It had pretty much been ignored during the 5 years of my ownership.  the dirt water that was in the radiator only showed to protect above 30 degrees (above zero) now she's garanteed for 4 years to take the coldest tundra weather and not turn into a block of solid ice, cracking the motor along with it.  I haven't thrown a lot of money at that truck ('cept for maybe the new set of tires a couple years back), so I thought I'd play catch-up before the cold weather hits...

kind of a funny story. I'm typically dead tired after work, and driving in a state of zombie driverness. There happens to be a train track that parallels one of the roads on the way back to my house, and on this track, directly next to me, was a shrimpy train. it consisted of an engine, a single car (of some sort) and a caboose. I remember, as I'm in this tired state, how cute that little train is as I'm looking over at it, then the minute I turn my head back toward the road, the train decides to blow its damn horn, scaring the complete shit out of me and waking my zombie ass up.  I almost wet my damn pants, then I laughed, after realizing how silly the whole scene was, cursing the cute little train under my breath.  maybe the engineer looked over and noticed how tired I looked? who knows?  after coming to my senses, I was almost saddened by the minor 7th triad the 3 train horns made in unison.  other goofy thoughts came and went as I drifted back into zombie driver mode the rest of the drive home.

I still can't figure out why I can't upload pictures onto xanga?  what's changed?  weird. I'll figure it out when I can sit down on a weekend sometime...

within the past 20 minutes, I've twice run into the word "probiotics" (once on the dog food bag as I was feeding the dog, and again on a stomach ache thread on facebook). I've heard the word before, but sort of dismissed it as a real word, 'til now.  are probiotics the opposite of antibiotics? if so, shouldn't one be bad and one be good? ...ok, after a quick Wiki search, 'probiotics' are little living organisms that help the body digest food and the like, 'antibiotics' are a substance that kills bacteria or slows their growth. so I guess pro- and anti- are somewhat opposite, one helps digest, the other kills bacteria, but both are beneficial to the body. got it. on to the next conundrum: progress versus Congress.  and speaking of stomach ache, I had an entry a week back, about diarrhea (what? this time it's good news).  I'm guessin' that was just a bug (or stress) or something, 'cause I haven't had the displeasure of that returning since.  if it comes back I should maybe include some pro-biotic dog food in my diet, and some macrobiotics as well (quick Wiki's 'macrobiotics', not having a clue what it means).

so, ya know something's not so groove-chicken when you wake up on your only day off at 7:30am, and consider it sleepin' in (that's 2 1/2 hours more sleep than I normally get).  I'm sure I'll catch me a power-nap while the LIONS lose. I finally (speaking of crazy hours) run into someone at work that agrees with me on the stupid mad hours one has to put in at this hell hole of a robot smoke factory. it was a guy punching out just after me that was complaining in unison on how much it feels more like a prison sentence than work (I don't know if most peeps feel afraid to suggest that the hours are horrible, as if they may lose their job if they protest? but I'm right out there with how ridiculous the mess is. I don't care. maybe I should wear a sandwich board with my angst riddled protest).  this week seemed to stretch for months. 59-1/2 hours (beats the old record of 54, set a couple weeks ago)! good gawd that's like a week and a half's worth of "normal" work (...and yet, there are those who volunteer for up to 72 hours. amazing!).  but again, a job is a job, and I signed up for it knowing it could be worse, so shame on me, i guess.  it's easy to bitch about work (where ever I work), but it's easier to fret about no work, so I should count my lucky stars (to coin a dead phrase). so I guess I'll have to deal with being a robot slave in "the land of the free" (...I know, again, I should count my lucky stars that I don't live in North Korea, or the like). how'd I get all political?  must be the probiotics in this dog food I'm snackin' on.

I got a clue as to why I have said sneeze attacks (posted on yesterdays blahg). it may be because I unwittingly forgot to eat supper. maybe beer+empty stomach=sneeze attack.  eat something next time fool! ...k. I wake up 'round midnight and had a bowl of cereal after realizing this.  when I was unemployed, I'd do the opposite.  most times, I'd skip breakfast and not realize it 'til 1 or 2pm.  now that I'm working, I can't afford to skip any meal [note to self: eat every meal like it's your last meal, you're body needs energy to bust ass at the smoke factory]

frost on the  truck this morning...not looking forward to snow at all!.  maybe I should move to a palm tree climate, like Mini-soda, or North Dakota

the pooperdog and I just went for our mile walk (to the snail box and back), and I gotta say, there were a ton of smarshed punkins everywhere!

with Pandora radio station set at 'Lali Puna', we (Pooperdog, Squabber, and I) make some Fronch tuust unt bacon (sans the root beer). I scramble the small amount of eggs leftover for Rosie (Squabber doesn't do eggs) to make her fur coat all shinier

wow! and for whatever reason, now I can't upload photos...I wanted to post one of Squabber and one of Rosie, hmmmmm [double checks settings].

later: the cool hippie lady's son (who lives 3 trailers east of mine with the cool hippie lady herself) comes over and confirms that  he'd like to rent my back bedroom. I give him a bit of a break because he has $200/week child support payment for a good year or so more (his kid is  almost at the age of 17...child support ending at 18). I split the rent in half of what the 'squatch gave me (being that we're in the center of a giant depression/recession thinger-what ever you wanna call it-)  he's good with that, plus he says he'll pay for cable TV, being a huge sports fan, etc., who has to have his ESPN.  cool.  he works the night shift, and he already takes Rosie for walks while I work the day shift, so it should work out good. plus, he feels good about moving out of his mom's  (who feels like she has to be quiet in her own home during the day, while he sleeps), not to mention -but will anyway- he's been paying $80/month to store his furniture at a storage warehouse .  which I told him we can find room for here, and he's still 3 trailers down from his mom, so if she needs anything, he'll be there.  a 1000 square ft  14x70 trailer has room for 2, plus enough room for both peoples furniture . my shed has a lot of room as well for extra shit...so it's all groove-chicken.

I grill up some bar-b-q chicken  and heat up some corn for supper and tomorrows lunch. drink some beers while watching the LIONS WIN (against the Redskins)! then the Vikings V. Patriots game to end the day with...it's been a good day off!

Bambi Mittens calls and leaves a message asking about the conditions of where I work.  she says her unemployment is running out and is considering working where I do (I'm guessing because it's still the only place in town that may be hiring thru the temp agency?  here's hopin' she's not following me...is that too presumptuous? prob'ly).  maybe I'll write her an email about my experience  and let her decide if she wants to work in Hell, or not?

MORE COFFEE!!!

I worked again today over in the beer/orgy dept (aptly named, once again, for their hootin' and hollerin' as if they have a keg of suds, and/or sexual...

wham!!!  and just like that, as I'm typing that last sentence (not even able to finish my thought), my eyes get watery, my nose gets runny, and I have me one of those huge random sneeze attacks.  some 20(ish) sneezes later, I go thru a number of Kleenex's and take me an over the counter generic allergy med.  meanwhile, I have a silly dog (did i write about this before? prob'ly) who likes to bark at me every time I sneeze. I just laugh and give her hugs. she's a goofball.  I am on beer # 3. I haven't had one since last weekend.  maybe I'm allergic to barley, hops, or Clydesdale horses. oh wait, it's Busch beer, so not horses, but maybe mountains...that's prob'ly it, I'm allergic to mountains.

k, can I get back to my original thought? (hurry up, beer # 4 just got cracked open, pretty soon, you'll forget why you started this entry all together).  where was I again? something about a beer orgy? I don't remember. did I have fun...?

alright, so yesterday I bitched about working 4 long days in a row, and how exhausting and tediously boring the welding job is, today was like a vacation in Hawaii by comparison (all right, well, not quite, but close).  I worked with the girls over in the beer/orgy dept. the work has substance, you need to pay attention (turns brain back on), and what's more, your (my) back didn't feel like it got hit by a 30 lb sledge hammer by the end of the day. I gotta ask about working over there more often. he's got me over there tomorrow as well. it's nice work (I prob'ly bitched about this dept too, in an earlier entry, but once again, in comparison, it's like a walk in the park.  peeps in this dept get bagels tomorrow, and everyone's dressing up in holloween stuff..I said I'd come as a working class bum, as per everyday).  anyway. it was nice.  my back feels good! oh and btw, I find out (while talking to someone that's been there for fourteen years) that the #2 welder (the one I'm normally stuck on) is the most labor intense welder out of the 3.  she goes on to explain "if you look at welder 1 and 3's operation, you'll notice that the robot places the part onto the  fixture on every  other shot, where as welder 2, the operator gets to throw a frame on the fixture every shot,  and the cycle time is a lot quicker, so the operator has to throw twice the weight a bunch more times [paraphrased]".  so I guess I'm not the wuss I made myself out to be by poopin' out at the end of the day yesterday. I'm twice as old as the other welders, but I'm workin' twice as hard at my machine, so there.

last weeks power steering fix went south. I got to work this past Monday (about a week after the fix-it shop "fixed" it), and heard the familiar "WHIRRRRR" sound (dammmmit!). I stop off at auto zone on the way home and ask if there's such a thing as 'power steering stop leak'? yep.  it just so happens it's a good 20 bucks a bottle, but guarantees stopping the leak, or your money back.  what the hell, I'd probably go thru $20 worth of regular power steering fluid before I got it back into the shop, so I buy me a bottle.  the stuff's like corn syrup in consistency.  it seems to quiet the 'whirrrr', but again today, I hear the 'whirring', so I top it off with some more corn syrup (it's a big bottle...here's hopin' it'll stop leaking before the bottles empty.  if all else fails, I'll bring it back in. it's got a year warranty attached to it. that is, if I didn't void the warranty by using stop-leak.)

Rosie jets off this morning as I'm releasing her from her lead line.  I, once again, quietly holler her name as I'm walking down the street at 5am...I figure she knows where home is, I'll take a shower and get ready for work. maybe she'll be by the door before I leave.  sure enough, she was sittin' on the porch, lookin' into the storm door. I let her in, but felt compelled to just giving her hugs for coming home and not scolding her. I would have worried all day,  had she not come back. so all is good. I just have to remember to have a better grip on her collar next time.  but that's the thing, she's usually good (leash or not) in following me up the steps, onto the porch and into the house, wagging her tail for the "nums" she earned for going potty.  weird. maybe it's because we haven't had near as many barefoot pooperdog walks since I started work, so she figures she'll bolt off on her own. I don't know. she's a good dog. 

stopped off at McDonald's on the way home from work when I read the sign saying "McRib's are back!".  oh, those are delicious!! I got me a combo mit a root beer that I'm sure consisted of about 3600 calories, but I don't care. it's a McRib sammitch!  it screams to be eaten!

Rosie's beggin' for a pooperdog walk right now.  good a time as any to take one...

let's see...no entries since Saturday.  what happened since then?  work, work, then more work.  these long days stuck on the same damn welder is getting old. I wish they'd give me the option of just working 5-8 hour days, or 4-10's...maybe I'll ask Sally (our temp agency HR within the robot smoke factory's office) and propose something like that, or have my temp agency find me something that fits those hours. I guess I'm gettin' too old to pull these long days.  the job itself has gotten easier, as far as once you get in the routine of beating the robot welder your cycle time is great, but now that I don't need my brain, and muscle memory takes over to perform the same task 800 times a day, I find the tedium is an issue, since we can't use MP3 players.  it's extreme exhaustion (physical work-out) enhanced by boredom (as well as morons that want to sing stupid songs real loud, like: "JOHN JACOB JINGLEHEIMERSHMIT, HIS NAME IS MY NAME TOO").  it used to be you didn't have time to get bored (or tired) and I had a lot more nervous energy to guide me thru the learning process. now it's just a damn drag. I'm whooped by 1pm, it gets worse knowing that there are 5 1/2 hours to go (sometimes 4, if they let us out at 5pm).  today, I slowed down on purpose, 'round 4:30pm because I was beyond whooped. Mario came over and said "you're done! go home!" I smiled and said "did you almost see me fall over from exhaustion?" he laughed.  i hope they want me back tomorrow?  did he mean "you're done!" as in 'that's it. don't come back'? I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning when I show my face.  I don't think that's the case ('cause he's only the "wannabe boss"), but it wouldn't break my heart to lose this job.  it's gotta be one of the toughest $8.37/hour I've ever earned (and again, I don't mind working hard, but that 12 hour day, even 4 days in a row, is an ass kicker!).   meanwhile, I get a message from a place called Premier Plastics.  they saw my resume on the unemployment site. trouble is, it's located in Grand Rabbits.  that's a long drive for work.  I can find something locally.   even if it were 2 part time jobs. I'd be good with that.  meanwhile, I'll try and stick it out at the robot smoke factory 'til they get tired of me gettin' tired. btw, I'm not the only one struggling with this, Matt and Ryan also are permanent fixtures on the other two welders (they both started 'round the same time I did). after talking with them, they've expressed their zombification  as well by the tedious long days, 'course they're both in their 20's, so it's a tiny different scenario, but a shared one at that.  anyway.  gotta get ready to hit the rack. 4:40 am comes around toooo damn quick!

got out of work early Friday (2:30ish), ending the week with 37 1/2 hours (missing Monday, and what not). that'll leave me with a big enough check to cover next weeks lot rent, my home owners insurance and still leave some money for grubbage.  after work, i filled the tank and did some grocery shopping, spending a good $150. that coolerator was beyond empty (would have been a good time to clean it, but no).  picked up some beerses for the weekend as well, turned on Netflix, and drank some while watching the newest Star Trek movie (good movie. seen it before at the IMAX theater with the Kid...it's just not as cool on a 17inch laptop screen). I must have let the dog outside at one point during the flick, 'cause I woke up 'round 4am and wondered where she was. I look outside and she's just sittin' in the yard staring across the street.  oops!  how long has she been outside? I gave her about 4 treats (instead of the usual one that I give her). sorry Rosie. at least it was a nice night to sleep under the stars...if she slept at all? I don't know why I make it a big deal, she used to live outside exclusively, through out the seasons, chained to a camouflaged painted dog house by the barn at Bambi's house.  how many years was she an outside dog is anyone's guess. I could ask Bambi, but it's not that important. speaking of which, she still writes, and leaves messages. I've ignored them all. is that bad? nah.

it's currently raining. 61 degrees.  I check the open window sill next to my desk to feel for water (I like having the windows open, but if the rain is driving at a slant it wants to get the sills wet, and rot 'em.  cheap trailer windows that they are, and all).  the cool breeze and the sound of rain is relaxing meshed with the scraping sound of the neighbors dog clawing at the metal door, wanting to get outside, onto the porch that faces my window. 

after making sure that both paychecks are deposited, I do some serious online banking to make sure things are up to snuff and  do a bit of forward thinking as to what needs to be thrown into savings for future bills, etc.  this paycheck misery kind of threw my bill pay routine off, but  I'll get her back on track ...

'across the way, Jay' comes over yesterday, curious to know how my paycheck debacle turnt out? I pretty much told him the story, then offered him a beer. "nope, I did some serious drinkin' earlier today...I'm still kind of drunk, I just came over to see if you had any milk (holding out a coffee cup). I ran out of cream for my coffee. I need coffee before I go to work..." [I'm thinkin'] work? didn't you just say you're still drunk. what a goofball. least he's not drivin'. a red station wagon with home made tail lights comes and picks him up. who knows, the driver of the wagon could be loaded as well.  and speakin' of neighbors, I see Chas (Ron) Manson's car home (ummm what used to be his home before allegedly assaulting the trailer park manager). were the alleged charges dropped? is he back? meanwhile, another neighbor (Marv, who I talked with while on one of our barefoot Pooperdog walks),  tells me Ron is looking to find neighbors who will testify for him. Marv said he wouldn't do it because then his hide would be on the trailer park managers shit list. Ron got uptight "I thought we were friends?!", "nope!". I guess Ron started throwing threats around after finding out how many friends he didn't have...I don't blame Marv. I can't say as I'd help the guy either (I avoid the guy for fear he'll ask me). he's a bit touched in the head (to put it bluntly). nice enough guy, but ya gotta wonder how many personalities live in that unkempt head of his? if he'd just pick one, then pick up a razor and lose the Charlie Manson look, and maybe invest in a tooth brush to clean those rotten and missing tombstones...maybe then he'd find the help he needs (is that sounding too judgey.  good, I meant it to).  I like Ron. he's that annoying eccentric neighbor that you hate to see go, but then again....I won't miss his lawn mower and leaf blower running for hours and hours, or his southern accented preachings (see previous entries), it won't be the same, however, to look out my kitchen window and not see Ron standing in the road, combing his hair (his daily routine). anyway. I have no idea how I got on the subject?  oh yeah. curiously enough, his car is in his driveway.  it just makes me wonder about the part of the story I haven't heard...I'd like to be nosey and ask Ron himself, but it's best, once again, to avoid him all together, and try and piece it all together with the rumors I've heard so far. 

my laptop computer has currently almost every port plugged into something (USB ported soundcard/speakers, USB ported fan that the computer sits on, USB mouse, HDTV LED screen is connected thru ummm (whatever that connector's called, etc.). you get the idea.  I come home yesterday and everything was unplugged. I suspect my dog sitter wanted to use it, so I went online and looked up the browsers history. sure enough 'plentyoffish.com' (dating site) was  on there. I helped him set up his profile a week ago (who else could it have been, he's the only other person with a house key). I don't mind so much that he uses my 'puter, it's there to use, but I wish he'd  make an attempt to plug stuff back in, or better yet, use the desktop 'puter in the other room. I'll let him know next time i see him.

oh yeah,  something else about work (other than the paycheck crappage): the guys I work with apparently don't know a good song if one smacked 'em in the head. they insist on singing "day-0h daaaaay oh daylight come and me wanna go home"  or the "nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey goodbye"or "I don't want her you can have her she's too fat for me" songs (or some cheese ball song from the 70's/80's).   I try and not let it bother me, because if they saw that it did, they'd increase the volume...you know how factory rats are pretty soon you start hearing other dept bust into the same lame songs. it's bad! meanwhile, I try and keep a good song, like 'creep in the cellar' by the Butthole Surfers, or 'Rhapsody in Blue' by Gershwin (?) in my head to try and drown out the lameness. man! I wish they'd allow MP3 players.  it sucks!

[the clawing against metal continues] good gawd Kat, let your dog out...he's  gonna scratch a hole right thru that door

I stop off at my snail mail box after work Wednesday, and find a check [finally!] that they (temp service) was supposed to give me last week. I turn around and zoom to the bank, deposit it into my ATM, and hope it clears before the power steering fix-it guy cashes the check I wrote him.  the next day (Thursday), I look at my account online, and it did in fact clear, then the $300 check for the fix-it guy cleared afterward (had it been in reverse order, I'd have had one more overdraft fee).  all in all, I only got tagged for 3 overdraft fees because of works stressful blunder, for a total of $30.  not too bad. could have been worse. I cleaned out my piggy bank of quarters and brought those to the bank in a tupperware bowl.  I made the comment about it being the first time I had ever brought tupperware to a bank, but she said she's seen it all.  I can about imagine. these are hard times for a lot of peeps ('specially in the MItten!).  anyway, I talked with someone at work who tells me don't even bother trying to recoup that $30, they'll just tack it onto your next weeks paycheck and then tax it as if it's overtime. you'll hardly see a dime.  wow. good point. I'll just write the whole thing off as a nightmare experience.  come to find out, while talking to my temp agency HR rep, she said a good 35 peeps at the robot smoke factory were involved in this mix-up!  then, she goes on to say, "this isn't the first time 'corporate' messed up. a couple months ago, a good sized lot of checks got sent accidentally to Florida" ...damn! (I'm thinkin' I should write this stuff down, and show it to a lawyer, but then again, a lawyer would cost a lot more then the $30 I wanna recover, so never mind).  I made my stink while it was going down. now it's time to drop it, and not hold a grudge.  I ran into one of the guys who was waiting behind me to talk to Sally (HR rep for the temp agency) about the same problem. he asked me on Wednesday (before I checked the mail) if I had got paid. I said no. he turns around and says "I'm drivin' dirty.  I can't even afford to pay my car insurance until they make it right!" that's when it got me wondering how this mess may have hurt the other 35?  there's prob'ly a small percentage that lost a lot more than 30 bucks?  that could have been the straw that broke the camels back for someone who was all ready on bankruptcy/foreclosure short list.  again. it was stressful, but I survived, and now that I have direct deposit, it should never happen again *crosses fingers*

good gawd! I've had diarrhea lately (what? yeah, you should have stopped reading after the last paragraph).  It hits me a couple days this week. once, i got the urge while driving into work, just to sit on the can for a half an hour once I made it in, the other was in the morning as well. I hit the bathroom during first break, then walk to the other bathroom as I'm almost to the break room.  at least it's controllable during work. I'm able to function (that's a plus).  I guess it may be because I've been hitting the Ibuprofen pretty hard before bed time (maybe?).  after coming to this conclusion, I try and not take any before last night's sleep.  it seemed to work. I felt good today, but then it hits me again, after I get out of work, and lay down for a nap. that familiar stomach ache, then pow! it sucks! I drink a lot of water, knowing that it can be a bad thing to dehydrate from diarrhea.  it could be just the stress of it all, what, with the paycheck problems, truck problems, clogged drains (there's the definition of irony, getting diarrhea over the stress of a clogged drain), etc. it's all good now. maybe I'm workin' this old frame too hard at this welding job? whatever the case, I'm thinkin' I'll have a peaceful weekend, drink a beer (or 12) and relax. maybe it'll go away...

worked a 10 hour day today. got home, Pooperdog and I do a short walk amongst the Fruit Loops trees, and dine on some leftover speghetti (made with hotdogs instead of hamburger)...

this whole ordeal about not getting paid that I've overly yacked about (because missing 3 or 400 dollars means a lot to a guy who's used to being on the cliff's edge of poverty, it would irk anyone no matter what status).   I call the 866 number to my temp agency again (in the middle of the night, due to a bout of insomnia, and this pain in the ass paycheck mess swirling around in my cranium, making me more angry).  they point me to a website where I can contact them. I type in all my necessary information, then fill the 1000 words or less field with what I'm up against, and what I expect them to do to fix it, but when I was ready to send said message, it gave me Syntax error (GODDAMMIT!!!). i just got all pissy, and called my local temp locale, and left a screaming message, really letting them have it, letting them know that I'm losing sleep, getting tagged with overdraft fees, concluding I don't have food or gas to even make it to work, as long as you guys don't send me the money I earned (the whole song and dance, paraphrased, but you get the jist).  when I got home they made sure and left me 4 follow up messages, and assured me that direct deposit has gone thru for my bank, and that my next check will be in the bank at midnight on Thursday (of this week). HURRAY! FINALLY! i gotta get all bent out of shape to hear some good news. before this, every call pretty much concluded "your check was sent in the mail Oct 14...keep on lookin' for it" (which didn't help me a damn bit when the check never showed). now there's still the matter of the check I should have gotten last Thursday...Sally is looking into that (yep. now that I've hollered, Sally and Steve are on the case). I spoke with Sally today (she has a desk right in the office space at the Robot smoke factory).  she was the first to show any kind of sympathy. she then said she didn't know why their corporate office screwed up, and as we're talking, another sorry sap, approaches with the same problem (...you gotta wonder how many people they filleted?).  anyway. between Steve and Sally, it looks as if they may solve this dilemma on or before Friday (shweet!).  long story short, I can finally get some sleep tonight.

alright, enough about that crap, time for a Netflix movie...

all right. Pooperdog and I take us a walk 'round 1pm, having high hopes that my last weeks paycheck was in the mailbox (wait, not last weeks. two weeks ago. last weeks hours will be on this weeks check.)  nope.  dammit!! I call my temp agency, they can't help, so they give me an 800 number to call, they're of no help either.  they pretty much say I'll have to call back this Thursday to put a stop order on that check and have them reissue me another one (great, so I can wait 'til the following week on that one too? I told her that I'd be in bankruptcy court by then -an over exaggeration, to hit my point home- I got fed up and grumbled "thanks anyway" in a sarcastic voice, then hung up, trying real hard not to throw the phone).  this will be resolved soon enough, but meanwhile, once again, I'm (they're) imposing overdraft fees up the wazzoo. I tell them this, but seem to get no sympathy.  good gawd! I've never dealt with such incompetents. i still don't know, however, whether to blame them or the post office?...the 'Squatch reminds me of when this happened to him thru Manpower.  come to find out, the mailman had put his paycheck in the wrong trailers box, who unfortunately only checked their mailbox once a week, after giving Manpower all kinds of grief.  maybe that's the case with mine? I'm not gonna worry about it (any more than I already have), but I will remind them daily,  to be that thorn in their side, until it's resolved.

not long after getting home, I got a surprise, via phone, that the repair guy had already fixed my power steering [the appointment was actually for tomorrow. $298!! youch!]. I just dropped it off yesterday (Sunday). that guy must be superman! I quickly call a neighbor and catch her just as she's on her way to go to the dentist. she says she can give me a ride to pick it up (shweet!).  I get dropped off, write a check that I know is gonna impose another overdraft fee, but feel good about getting my wheels back.  now I don't have to bum a ride to work.   ok. drain unclogged, truck back on the road, now if I can just get paid, I can relax a bit (until the next 3 problems arise).

it turned out (ultimately) to be a nice day (despite my double hernia anxiety over a phantom paycheck)!  I power-napped thru the cloudy part, then it became beautiful sunny weather in the 60's, Pooperdog and I take a couple 3 walks and a "Sunday drive". again, it sure feels good having my truck back! thanks Superman!

I wake up this morning to a blaring alarm clock, with still too many things on my mind (plus the nights sleep was most restless...). I decide to call in dead (k, not dead, but with the excuse that my truck dropped its power steering). the temp agency answer machine says to not only leave an attendance message there, but at work proper, as well. trouble is, the answer machine asks for a four digit code or a first and last name of your supervisor before you leave a message.  I have neither (the assignment sheet only has the dept I work for. the supervisor field was left blank). we don't even have a boss in our dept. the closest one to acting like one, is Chris, and I have no idea what his last name is? anyway, after the cryptic answer machine routine, I get a "if it's an emergency, stay on the line and security will answer".  I get a real person. I quickly tell him that it's not an emergency, and explain my dilemma.  he gives me a voice mail to the next best thing. A-crew's human resource rep (her name, btw, is Natalie Cole. of course, I gotta ask; "THEE NATALIE COLE...? NAT KING COLE'S DAUGHTER?!" just to be a dork. i think the guy was too young to get the reference. anywho, long story longer. I leave a message with her describing what, why and who this should be aimed at, in which dept, etc. trying to cover all bases.  if this was the wrong approach, someone will prob'ly give me a 4 digit code, or name in case I gots to call in again.

I figured I'd just go back to bed, but Rosie has other plans. I let her out on her line, make some coffee, and unload (and reload) the dishwasher (being a bit backed up on dishes due to the drain clog, and what-not).  I'm thinkin' I'll spend part of the day applying for REAL work. this robot smoke factory is good for the time being, but I can't see myself making a career out of it.  the neighbor dude keeps steering me toward the Sara Lee meat processing plant in Borculo (just north of here). he says apply for everything that's offered. don't get discouraged by rejection emails, just keep pummeling 'em 'til they're sick of hearing from you (this is the approach he took).  he says maybe 3 weeks later, you'll get a phone call interview, then a real interview will be set up just after that.  He gives me the website to their job offerings.  I'll have lot's of time to "pummel" them today. it'd be nice to get work where you don't have to breath weld smoke all day. then again, I don't know what a meat processing plant smells like either? maybe it's worse.  I'll spend the other chunk of the hooky day hunting down last weeks paycheck and figuring out how to get to the bank (what, with my truck at the garage, and all). maybe Jay will be kind enough to let me rent his wheels for a minute?  I'm sure I'll find a way, but first, I gotta make sure the paycheck is in my mailbox (mail man...female man...male lady) comes about 1 this afternoon.  pooperdog and I will schedule one of our Fruit Loop tree walks 'round then, to see if'n I gots paid...

speakin' of the mail, yesterday, i get a piece of mail from my insurance company about going paperless. they send a separate piece of paper asking me to go paperless...I had to laff. k, I guess you had to be there.

MORE COFFEE!!!

all right, despite a half busted truck, a paycheck that never arrived, and a clogged sink drain, I'm just gonna relax and watch the LIONS win (maybe throw in a power-nap, clean the wood-panel submarine,  and a couple pooperdog walks amongst the Fruit Loop trees), for tomorrow, I gotta start the whole 12 hr day robot smoke factory rat race once again...

later: yeah!  Sasquatch comes over, we do lunch at the Chinese restaurant, then drop my truck off at the fix-it guys shop.  we watch da Bears lose, as well as the end of the Lions game (they lose at the last minute), we play some golf on the PS2 (2 games, he handily wins both), then he splits. I bust out the plunger and try my damnedest to plunge the kitchen sink.  it took a good hour and a half-ish, but I finally got that sucker to drain, I then used the other half of the liquid plumber bottle, waited 15 minutes, then poured boiling water down the drain to help degunkify the sludge in the pipes. once the drain seemed cleared out, I put more soap in the dishwasher and hit go.  I watch the cycle that empties the dishwasher. no overflow...shweet!  problem solved! afterward, I drink a couple beers and do some reading, feeling better about some of these items on my to-do list done (or "in process", in the case of my truck). the pooperdog and I take another walk 'round 8. it's been a good day!  thanks Squatch, for your help (yeah, as if he reads these bland blahg entries

good gawd damn, my snail mail paycheck didn't come in Saturday's mail either (s'posed to get paid on Friday, now I gotta wait 'til Monday).  if I already had direct deposit, it would have been in my checking account 3 days ago (and it's a big check too. 59 hours worth!).  meanwhile, I wrote a check to my dog sitter thinking (there I go thinkin' again) it would be in the bank (for sure) by Friday. BOUNCE! k, well, not 'bounce' so much as paid, then an overdraft account kicking in to cover it, along with a $10 fee (thank you very little!), then again I'm struck with yet another overdraft fee because the paycheck doesn't show up today (Saturday), and something else withdraws from the same account (I love giving free money to banks)....good gawd! I write my bank, saying "I may as well keep my money in a coffee can, you guys imposing all these fees on me, and all.  how long does it take to set up a damn direct deposit? it's not like I'm buying a house. it's been 3 week!" (I know, it's my own damn fault for assuming...yet they can get their shit together a bit faster too, I'm thinkin').  they write back with a very low key diplomatic form letter, being all kind and stuff, appreciating my business, etc. (how can ya fight that?)  all right. so everything's cleared. I just can't buy anything until I get the snail mail check, deposit it, then check my bank account to make sure that it's been cleared. It'll be 'round Wednesday before it shows up as a deposit...if the trend continues from the last paycheck.  what should have been deposited the week before Wednesday, was finally installed the following Wednesday.  meanwhile, I don't know whether to blame my temp agency, my bank, or Chase bank (all three involved in the current change over from Chase debit card payment to direct deposit). the whole thing's a damn mess. I'm thinkin' (errr hopin') that once my bank clicks into the direct deposit mode, I'll be good to go. meanwhile, it's a damn pain in the ass...!!

it's kinda weird to not see anything going on at Ron's (aka Chas Manson) house. He's always got something going. working on his car, combing his hair in the middle of the road, blowing leaves, mowing his lawn, etc.. it's quiet for once!.  I don't know if he's in jail, or what? I'm sure I'll hear more as time goes on. meanwhile, who am I going to bitch about in my blahg. no more Bambi, no more Ron.  it's been kind of boring since these two have gone away.

I search the pantry/fridge for some grubbage.  looks like I'll be making some hot dog spaghetti for supper.

I have a problem with my dishwasher. I filled it up, threw in the soap, and hit run, but when the machine was in a drain cycle, I noticed both my kitchen sinks filling with water (the dishwasher drains into the sink drain). I stop the process before the sinks over fill, but it takes a long time for the sinks to drain. I just snaked the damn drain, not but a 1/2 a year ago.  dammit!  ok. no worries. first, get the paycheck, then fix the truck, then the drain.  all is good in the world

the power steering in my truck is leaking. I'll fill it up one day, and two days later, it makes that whirring sound while turning corners. I make an appointment at my local fix-it guy shop for next Tuesday (but he says, if I can get it there sooner, he may have a chance to fix it before then). the plan was I'd grab a neighbor tomorrow and have him follow me to the shop, so he could give me a ride back home, thinking that would give me today to cash my check, get some groceries, and do whatever other running around I need to do.  that plan's shot since I didn't receive a snail mail check from my temp agency today [dammit!].  I guess I'll just push everything a day ahead, and hope my check will be in the mail tomorrow. I may have to hit up a ride to work from the next door neighbor (who works the same hours at the same smoke factory) until the truck gets fixed.  he's already ok'd this from when I passively mentioned that I may have to bring it in soon, back when the problem first began...here's hoping it's a half way cheap fix. I don't feel like taking out a loan to pay for a brand new $8 million steering pump unit what'sit.  we'll see what happens. it's been a great truck! this will be the first time that I've had to take it in for repairs (other than tires, spark plugs,  oil changes and regular routine kind of shite) in the 5 years that I've owned it, so actually I guess it's overdue for an expensive fix.  maybe I'll ask him how much for a new clutch job (being that's prob'ly what'll go next)

woke up too late this morning to throw a pasty in the oven to bring to work for lunch, so I made a couple 3 pbj sammiches, and ate one on the way. I was hoping for a short day due to I was feeling mighty whooped from a weeks worth of welder #2.  the "boss" comes around just before first break (9am) and asks if I'd be interested in going home, since they're shutting welder 3 down. I quickly said yes! then grabbed my water bottle and left before he changed his mind.  so, even though I only got 2 1/2 hours in today, I still made a total of 42 1/2 hours for the week (and have a three day weekend to boot! perfect! I wish I could do that every week). 

Brian (the cool hippie ladies son who walks Rosie during the day) stops by with a couple packages of Ball Park franks, that he got a case of, from work.  cool!  we yack for a bit, comparing notes on what each other knows (or has heard rumors of) about Ron (aka Chas Manson...see yesterday's entry).  I give him a check for being the good dog sitter that he is ($35/week isn't a lot, but I, and the carpet inside the trailer,  appreciate it hugely).  It averages out that I work just over 4 hours a week for the peace of mind of knowing someone will let the dog out during the middle of the day.  she's worth it (and more!).

pooperdog and I take a nice walk 'round the park. then I reheat some tuna/chicken helper from last night for lunch along with a coldy. I'm currently contemplating taking a powernap, just for funzies...

[here's a smallish picture of what I (and other robots) help weld while bustin' ass at the smoke factory. it's a car seat frame for the honda accord/pilot...pretty exciting stuff, right? *yawn*]

oh yeah, our lunch room (at the robot smoke factory) is about half the size of a football field with a good 9 TV's hanging from the center posts (all turned off). I ask (others at our table) why they don't at least turn on Cartoon Network, or some such entertainment?! then I told them a story of how we were constantly bombarded by FOX news on the TV's in the break room at Grand Rabbits Spring and Stamp (GRSS) on a daily basis...yesterday (maybe a week after I told this story), I come into the break room just as someone was turning on the TV's.  yep. you guessed it. FOX news! I laughed until I stopped (it was that funny!).  what is it with metal shops and FOX news? do they feel as if Bill O'riley will calm our nerves?? un-effin'-believable!  maybe this is a sign to run as far away as I did the GRSS job...?

work, sleep, work, sleep, work....my check, once again, doesn't show up as a direct deposit (how many weeks do they need to get this right?!).  I get out of work at 4:30 today [bonus!], drink a couple beers,  make some shit on a shingle (chicken helper,  using tuna instead, for lack of having any chicken,  then placed on toast...mmmmmmmms!).  I gotta hit the store, pending my check comes via snail mail tomorrow. *crosses fingers* I'm about out of EVERYTHING food wise. I still have a pasty or two I can cook before work, and eat for lunch (they're great for fast lunch food!). I catch up tonight, after a good barefoot pooperdog walk, visiting a couple of this weeks "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" (via hulu.com on me laptop), but as I'm in the middle of an episode, 'across the way Jay' wanders over and asks if I heard what  dumb-ass Ron did (aka Chas Manson...ya know, the 5 hour leaf blower guy from past entries). I noticed that ALL of the junk from around his yard was gone, as well as that car he had up on blocks (the '84 buick brake line job).  seems (according to Jay) that maybe Ron was late on his rent (at this point he's speculating), giving the green light for the park management to get after him, and clean up his junk yard (I've mentioned in the past, how he'll keep an immaculate yard, spending hours making it look just so, yet have a collection of busted lawnmowers, snowblowers, and other junk strewn around the perimeter of his trailer).  they gave him 6 days to sell what he could...he had a yard sale, but he wanted exorbitant prices for everything, so nothing got sold.  seems after day 6 (again, according to Jay), the park manager loaded everything onto a flat bed, including that old car that he was working on, and drove off. now, the story gets better (bear with me).  once Ron caught wind of what the hell just went down, he hunted Steve (park manager) down and proceeded to try and strangle him.  now Steve's a big guy, and could have kicked Rons ass if he wanted, but played it cool, and used the neck bruises to press charges against Ron (still Jay's story, but a good one, at that).  if all of this is true, he'll never live in this park again (and he's been here for a good 15 years!  who knows what kind of junkyard the inside of his house is?). personally, I'll miss his 5 hours of leaf blowing and 4 hour lawn mowing.  but ya know, honestly, I hate to wish ill will on the guy, but he made his own bed (again, based on whether Jay's story is anywhere close to being true. who knows?!)...bye bye Ronald.  on a side note, you'd think they'd have dragged away his '69 dodge charger, being that was also on blocks in his driveway (curiously, they left that). I'll keep you posted, as I hear more rumors...

4:40 am will get here too soon. must get some sleep-age.  looks like I work Friday, then have Saturday and Sunday off. SHWEET! the neighbor (who works the same shift, but a different dept) has to work all weekend long, like he did last weekend (sucks to be him, but he doesn't seem to mind.  he's kind of an overtime monger.  he can have it. working during the week is torture enough, thank you very little. I'm already hoping my "boss" will have mercy on us tomorrow and cut the day short *re-crosses fingers*

bar-b-qued some chicken on da grill yesterday while watching Michigan State kick U of M's ass and just as the game almost ends, the neighbor (one of Jay's friends) invites me to his hillbilly trailer trash campfire.  cool! I put the laptop back in the house, grab a sweat shirt, fill my man-purse (which doubles as my work lunch box) with beerses, grab my beach chair, and the pooperdog and I take a walk (he lives a couple streets south of mine).   it was just he and his wife, Jay, and I, with random friends coming and going. Jay left early. he's got some kind of lung infection. while hangin' around the fire, their dog, who wanders freely and seems to stay around the house, was being all tough 'round Rosie, protecting his territory. it was cute, but they quickly became friends. he asks me if I had ever let Rosie roam freely? I guess I've never tried, so I unhook her and see what she does. she quickly dashes away. I'm not too worried. she knows this park inside and out (from the millions of barefoot pooperdog walks, and all). she'll be ok. i figure if she gets lost, she'll know where home is.  maybe 2 hours later, she wanders back. k, that was a fun experiment. I hook her back onto the leash and hook that onto my beach chair. I hung around and got slowly bombed 'til who knows what time of night. I don't recollect even making the trek home. my seeing eye dog prob'ly dragged my beer soaked carcass to the right trailer, opened the door, and threw me into bed (haven't got that lit in a long time!).  actually, wait. I woke up on the floor.  anyway. I nursed a bit of a hang-over today by taking a powernap out in my lawn chair while listening to the Lions game (playing on my laptop out on the porch.  they slaughtered the Rams 44 to 6!). later on, I throw some pork chops on the grill and make some smashed tators to go widdit (mmmmmmmms!).  it was a damn fine weekend!!

Ron (aka Chas Manson) was spending a good 4 plus hours with that stupid leaf blower again. I got so sick of it, i wanted to wander over and break the damn thing over his head, but instead I'm thinkin' if I offer him money, he'd put it away for awhile. I don't have any money on me, but find an ounce of silver (worth around $20). I walk over there and ask him nice if he'd maybe do that during the week, there's a lot of people that have weekends off and would rather not hear a jet engine...he comes back with "it's fall, we have leaves to blow...blah, blah". "yeah, but it shouldn't take 4, 5, 6 hours to do your little trailer lot".  he gets more defensive "not everyone can work around your days off".  I just said "oh ok", and walked away.  I'm not gonna argue with the guy. he prob'ly knows that if he fires that turd back up, I'd be quick to call the park manager  (and you know I would!). he's already in trouble with them for having 2 cars up on blocks (you're not supposed to do major auto repairs in your driveway. he's currently-for the past month- replacing all the brake lines on his POS '84 buick) he seems to comply with my request (so far).  and again, I don't have problems with people using loud machines (lawnmowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, etc), but when that person spends half a day on something that should take 1/16th the time, I'm gonna say something (that's not unreasonable, right?).

not looking too forward to waking up at 4:40 tomorrow morning, but that's life...I'll deal widdit.

[priddy Fruit Loop colored trees brighten up this old park...]

oh yeah, one more thing about work. I told you that a certain percentage of the company was moving to Mexico. I got more info from someone who was actually paying attention at the meeting. he says; either this place (Douglas plant) or the plant in Battle Creek will be shutting down for good. yikes! so at any given day, our punch in cards won't open the shop door....  the prospect isn't as scary for me, being that I work for slave labor wage anyway,  but the news has got to be frightening for those big money full timers that have been there for awhile.  I'll keep ya posted as events unfurl. just maybe we'll get lucky and the bad news will fall unto the Battle Creek peeps?  who knows.

all right, while bustin' ass on a welder, making robots at the smoke factory (what?), the "boss" walks 'round and tells everyone "no Saturday work"...SHWEET!!  then, come around 2:30, thinkin' I only had 4 more hours 'til a real weekend, the "boss" once again, comes over and says; "once you're finished welding these two racks, you can go home". SHIGGITY shweet!! I end up leavin' at 3, stoppin' off for some beers, and catch the mail box to see if my temp agency actually paid me this week...good. there it is. turn around, drive to the bank, deposit said greenage.  it's enough (plus a spare $30) to cover rent and bills.  next weeks check should be pretty big (59 hours worth).  I should be able to sock most of that into savings. anyway. I get home, take a shower, start drinkin' beers on an empty stomach (dumb move!)...being almost too tired to stand up.  needless to say, it only took about 2 beers to get hammered (cheap weekend drunk, and what not.) do some front porch sittin' (with Rosie) and catch up on my ABC world news with Diane Sawyer for the week via my laptop (hulu.com).  afterward, i peruse netflix for a zombie flick, and for whatever reason, it gives me an error message when I click play.  I don't like paying $9/month to get an error message...oh well. I'll have to call their help number.  it prob'ly has to do with my router/modem problems I had a couple days back. 

beautiful day today! Rosie and I take a barefoot pooperdog walk, then make some bacon and franch toost (mmmmmmmmms!  beats the hell out of 'Crispy Hexagons' -Ralston Purina's version of 'Chex').  man it's nice out (did I mention that yet?). maybe I'll take my shirt off, grab a rake and get me a sunburn *plan*  supposed to be just as nice Sunday

yep. slept like a damn log last night. the difference from any other night? I closed the bedroom door, so as I could [try to] get a complete uninterrupted sleep.  it worked. I feel good this morning. the dog ends up waking me anyway, but it was just a couple barks before the time the alarm was to go off, so no biggy.  yesterday was the first time [in my life] that I've ever worked 4-12'ers in a row *yawn*.  I may have done many 10's, with a 12'er (and the random 14) thrown in here and there, several times, while working the boat factory, but I think this is a new record for me, and I'm not done yet.  looks like I got another 24 hours to go (within the next 36!).  then my long-ass week is done.  maybe they'll have mercy on us welding robots and let us go home early on the weekend? it seems like a month ago, only it was just last week, that I was braggin' about all the time off they were giving me.  I'm not braggin' anymore. anywho. time to get ready for another daily grind...gotta stretch out these soar muscles. fun, fun, fun!

it's payday today, but I don't see me money in me bank (just yet).  now, it's prob'ly due to me changing my preference from that dingbat debit card to direct deposit, so I'm thinkin' I'll get another check via snail mail in the mean time (as I did last week). I'll check the mail tonight, and see what's what...oh yeah. work.  the robot puppy mill smoke factory awaits. ready, go!

day 3 of a twelver-a-thon. da "boss" wanders around near the end of the shift and says; "everyone's working Friday and Saturday too". nice. 12'ers Mon-Sat.  that'll be a 72 hour check...if I survive it

after work today, I stop off to the store and pick up some cat food, dog treats and shampoo (I guess I forgot about food for myself...I still got some fridge scrapin's for lunches, and what not.), then stop off at Wendy's for a couple of their $1 double stack burgers and an ice water. Rosie's happy to see me after such a long day.  I'm happy to see her too (along with the squabb', of course). she's a good dog!!  anyway. after groceries and dinner, I came home and found my internet connection disabled.  it took me a good hour to figure it all out. my normal turn off the router, and modem, then reboot each in order didn't want to work. I had to mess with the settings on the 'puter itself (why is this still giving me a headache? I got a new modem and router...so that this type o'shit wouldn't happen anymores! oh well. the good news is the modem/router aren't crashing near as often as it used to. it's still a bit frustrating. what can ya do?.)

gotta hit the rack.  4:40 comes up WAY too soon.

another 12 hours on a damn welder...it's grueling!  there's a girl in our area that's been there for 14 years.  she reassures me that my back will get used to the agony...I get a bit grumpy by the end of the day due to conflicting communications.  the place (wait, our dept, at least) is somewhat of a communications nightmare (being there is no official boss).  I hear one thing, someone else asks me what I've heard, they base their actions on that misinformation, then even when a correction is made, it's vague and I wonder who to ask what's right and what's not (this usually goes daily for a number of issues).  like any new job that looks half promising the first week or two, it's easy, by week 3, to get discouraged by the waste of time and energy after seeing how badly things are run, and wondering who's in charge, etc..  meanwhile, I try and keep my sanity simply by pluggin' along.

a common 12'er starts by waking up at 4:40am. make a lunch, let the dog out to pee, take off for work at 5:30, punch in 'round 5:50. sit in the break-room and drink their free coffee.  work from 6:30am to 6:30pm. get home by 7, walk the dog, find something to eat, take a shower, throw grimy clothes in the washer, hit the rack by 8 , setting the alarm for 4:40am for the next day. (usually getting up in the middle of the night when the dog whines to go pee....which is where I'm at right now). it's a long ass day! *yawn*

another 12 hour stint on the the big welder (no.1 Genesis). I'll spare you the details of the operation, other than you have 7 different pieces to weld to a frame, making you dance pretty fast to keep things in the green, but for reasons beyond my control, the machine kept having multiple brain farts, putting me in the red all day.  maintenance was over there almost more than I was...and once again, about 10 hours into it, I wanted to bring out the proverbial shot gun. it's tiring work. I type this in the middle of the night, as Rosie does her thing in the yard. I gotta be on the edge, in case she starts barking (like she once in a great while does). I, unlike my noisy leaf blowing neighbor, try and keep the noise down. anyway. she's prob'ly done poopin'. best grab her a treat and coax her inside, so as I can go back to bed.  gotta be up by 4:40am for another fun filled day at that puppy mill of a smoke factory.  yep, that's my new name for the place "puppy mill".  seems even the full timers are surprised at all the new faces, and they tend to work us like dogs, so why not? right? *fart*

worked yesterday.  we were supposed to work a 12'er, but instead of getting out at 6:30, it was closer to 2:30, and instead of being a welder, Matt and I were trucked over to assembly, to both be shown how to run two machines at once. this is faster pace, more delicate work, working amongst many other people (including some priddy girls...) in a sort of claustrophobic horse shoe shaped cell of small machines, gizmos, fixtures and hangers.  if you you like working alone in wide open spaces, this isn't your type of job. you quickly realize that if you fall behind, the guy on the next machine over will fall behind as well, or if you pay attention to just one machine, another work cells line suffers. the first machine I learn deals with placing four rings on the machines fixture, then you grab a right hand part and place it on the back two rings (after checking the part on a go/no go gauge), then grab the left hand part, go/no go gauge it, and face it the opposite way on the front two rings, hit the buttons for the machine to tamp these rings into place, then, while that's cycling, you have to run to the next machine, also putting rings into a fixture, placing two small parts and a stud onto it, and hit the buttons, meanwhile the first machine ends its cycle, so you have to run back and grab those two parts, do a 180, and drop the rear part on the left tray, and the front part on the right (lather, rinse, repeat).  just as I get proficient at my new job, they have Matt and I switch.  all right. this new job involves two machines as well.  looks like the first one is putting some kind of feet on a rocker arm thinger, and the second tamps rings on little legs for the feet (yeah, hard to describe without pictures).  at least this new job isn't as demanding as the first.  Matt wants to trade back after lunch, so we do. I left his machine finished stock pile way behind, due to the fact that I ran out of studs just before lunch, and all the finished parts on the rack quickly got swallowed up by the people down the line. these people look at me when the racks emptied out. I explain that I ran out of studs and that the boss was on a mission to get some more. anyway,  Matt had to bust ass just to restock once the studs arrived (what? he wanted to switch). I always wondered what this area was like to work in. there's always girls hootin' and hollerin' for no apparent reason. I often wondered how I could find my way into the beer orgy dept (yeah, my imagination had a better picture than reality).  seems these girls are just bored, I guess.  I thought sure, one can't have so much fun at work, hootin' and hollerin' the way they do, without either having beer or sex, or both. I looked around for a keg, and no one seemed to be gettin' laid.....  dashing my  imaginary beer orgy theory against the rocks.  all right. enough about work *fart*

after getting home, I hit the shower, do a load of oily weldy laundry, then take the pooperdog for a barefoot walk (these walks are getting tougher, being the weather is in the 50's...maybe I'll start wearing shoes *plan*), then hit the beer store for a sixer of pale stale ale.  I get home and ponder what to have for dinner.  seems I still have me some sweet Italian brats in the coolerator.  maybe I'll throw on a sweater, take my laptop out on the porch (placed on a chair opposite my van seat), turn on a dorky zombie movie (vie Netflix...some unknown George Remaro flick. Survivors of the Dead, or some such goofball title.), grill up some brats, and drinks me some beerses.  after the brats were done, I wander over to Jays place and knock on the door. "are there any hippies home?" I yell ('cause that's what we call each other on the fly). I bang on the door a couple times.  no answer.  while this takes place, I realize that every window, facing his front porch, has been covered by bed sheets.  I never noticed this before. is he turning into Howard Hughes?  anyway, I had knocked to not only give him his plates and pan back from the last grillage, but to also invite him over to do brats and beers.  he was either sleeping or is dead (er sumptin').  anyway. the pooperdog and I share some brats, then end the night watching "Evil Alien Conquerors" (via Netflix, once again).  this movie is so bad, with the camp factor off the grid, I'm thinkin' it only took a couple hundred to create. I've seen it before with the Kid, but was fun to watch again...it's stupid fun!

all right, let's focus on Jay for a minute (since I all ready brought him up, and all). he just turned 50. he says the first thing he does on his 50th birthday is roll out of bed, only to blow out a knee.  the other day, he tells me of a frantic phone call he got from his friend..."dude, ya gotta come over here right away! Laura (yes, of 'Laura and Tank' fame...i've written about her and her dog from time to time in past entries) has fallen onto an aquarium!". Jay says he didn't know quite what that meant, so he hurried over and said the scene looked as if a deer had been gutted and dragged across the carpet.  seems Laura was beyond wasted and tripped onto something, landing on an empty aquarium that happened to be on the floor, next to an iguana aquarium, and a snake aquarium (what? she uses her trailer for a zoo?!).  any way.  he says he had to help get her clothes off and pick shards of aquarium from her back and ass.  he insists that she goes to the hospital, but it seems she felt she was too wasted to go, so he said to quell the bleeding, he found feminine napkins (mini pads...whatever you wanna calls 'em), and the like, to cover the wounds. he was there most of the night picking glass and cleaning her and the place up.  meanwhile, her boyfriend was out of town, and his little girl was locked in her bedroom (she locks the kid in the bedroom?! I don't ask.  maybe she did this that particular night, so the kid wouldn't experience the "carnage" -as Jay called it- who knows?).  he tells me other stories about his brothers.  seems he lost two of them last year. one to diabetes, and another to cancer.  both, in their 50's. recently he tells me that the only surviving sibling (a 64 year old brother) has told Jay (in a joking way, as he says he and his family do to disguise pain) that he has stage 4 colon cancer. good gawd, does the bad news ever end?! Jay himself only expects to live another 7-10 more years (averaging out all the ages of mom, dad, and brothers age at which they died).  I'm thinkin' it may be sooner than that, with that chronic smokers hack and the story he tells me next.  seems on his days off (when he gets out of work at 5am), he'll get bombed right after, then sleep/pass out, only to wake up at, say, 1pm, get drunk again, sleep til, say, 8pm, then get ripped again!  getting his drank on 3 times a day!  wow!  I don't even know what alcoholism is compared to this guy....one other quick story he tells. it seems he continued to collect unemployment weeks/months after he got his old job back. now the gov't wants some $2700 back.  WHAT?! unbelievable!  why...? wait.  don't even ask

all right, I've been dealing what I thought was a minor cold forever.  stuffy head, weird throat, etc. I believe it may have started that way ('round the end of last week), but may instead have turned into allergies somewhere along the way. I was half clogged and coughing myself to sleep last night, got up, took me one of those Clariton (allergy thingeys), and woke up feeling as if my head had turned off the faucet, yet when I got up to feed the dog and cat, and brew some java, the crap came right back. am I allergic to dogs? cats? coffee? beers? what?! I don't like not knowing, then again, what would knowing do? I can't eliminate any of those items from my life...

well, this has turned into a bland novel, so I best sign off before I sit hear all day and type.  leaving tomorrows entry to say: "I sat down and typed a novel all day".

oh yeah, one other quick nothing...either someone's messin' with my bathroom scale or I had dropped 20 lbs over the past 3 weeks.  instead of being that 200 lb guy, I'm down to 180!  I check the scale to make sure it's adjusted right.  seems to be. all be damned. maybe this workout of a job is actually burning the slack fat? I sort of wish I hadn't thrown out my old belt, to compare notches lost. my new belts are too new to show ware marks, as to where the buckle used to be...anywho. I best try and maintain this weight. I'll add whale blubber to my diet, if I go any lower

later: the Detroit LIONS (formerly, the Portsmouth Spartans) almost pull off a come back against the Packers...this makes one more consecutive on the road loss (how many does that make now, like 24 in a row?).  they haven't won a game in Wisconsin since 1999.  also, according to their wiki page:

since the NFL's expansion to 32 teams in 2002 the Lions are the only NFC team to not make the playoffs.

The 2008 Detroit Lions became the only team in NFL history to lose all 16 regular-season games. Ironically, their preseason record had been 4-0. They are only the second team to go winless without a tie (next to the 0–14 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers) since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. They went 2–14 in 2009. The Lions currently hold a 23 game road losing streak, the 4th longest in NFL history.  good gawd. they just can't get a break....

God dammit Ron (aka Chas. Manson...my warped neighbor)!  you've been running that whiny leaf blower all fockin' day.  give it a damn rest!! use a damn rake, it's a bunch quieter, for gawd sake! have a little consideration for those around you.  it's most peoples day off.  do that shit during the week! (besides just how many hours in a day do you need to blow leaves on a dinky trailer lot?! 12 to 14?! it's getting dark. put it away!!!!! btw, he does the same damn thing when he mows the lawn too. it takes him a good 2 1/2 hours to mow the same size lawn that I have, and I can do mine in under 12 minutes. it gets old quick!!! 

sorry.  just venting.  i feel better now.  really.

so it's Thursday night and I already have seven more hours in than I did last week (that's cool).  da boss rolls around at 4pm and says "you have Friday off, but you'll have to work a 12'er on Saturday"  weird! k. he didn't mention anything about Sunday (and I forgot to ask).  today was the second day in 3 weeks that I actually pull off a whole 12 hour shift, but this time I was stuck on the same welder ALL DAMN DAY.    I wanted to shoot myself in the head (figuratively, of course) by about 4 pm, and then I had 2 1/2 hours to go beyond that (!!! good gawd I was sapped!).  luckily, it was somewhat of a gravy job (by comparison...but even gravy can make one "suicidal" if served with too big of a ladle...wait, what kind of simile was that?!).   I had no right bitchin' about some of the welders that I first  started off on, this week, they pull out the big guns! I spend a day on welder 3 Panasonic arc.  it's a monster! instead of a turntable that rotates like an LP record, this one flips around top to bottom, kind of giving you that vertigo feel as you watch it rotate, and like the other welders, and fixtures, you quickly learn the annoying bugs (and some of the secrets the regulars use to by-pass the bugs giving you nearly as good a rate as them).  the problem with learning welder 1 and 3 is; they are similar, but you have to load the parts upside down and backwards compared with the other.  it's a pain in the ass.  why'd they design 'em so different?! oh well. I was told I did good for my first day on 3, so I'll stop bitchin' (some day).  learning more and more about production handling, canban, cleaning the robot welding tips, changing the fixtures during part change-over, etc.  it's not a job on the Love Boat, but I'll take it.  this morning, I bust out to my dept, along with a couple other temps, a couple minutes early, so as we can get our assignment, and get to work.  well, come 6:30, we're the only ones standing out there, wondering where the rest of the crew is?! 10 minutes go by, we're doing busy work, like cleaning the machines, sweeping, etc. when someone stops by and says; "if you're wondering where everyone is, we have a monthly meeting in the break room with the big  cheese".  great.  good of someone to let us know.  we wander back. it's standing room only. I don't pay much attention, thinking most of this is prob'ly for full timers, 'til I happen to hear something about 1/3 of the shop moving to Mexico soon..., and something about a large portion being bought out by the Germans?!  great. I'm thinkin', even if I was a full time employee of, say, 20 years, I'd be scared to hear this. I have pretty much zero chance of gettin' in this place, being as green as I am, and all ('less I'm quick to learn eSpaniol and move to Mejeco).  nice.  oh well. shit's gotta pick up soon?  right? the economy can't be this lousy forever?  can it??  maybe. anyway. gotta get out of these oily, weld dirt infested clothes and take a hot shower.  maybe drink a couple of beers before hittin' the rack.... *BELCH!*

lunch time rolls around, and my new friend Matt (another $8.37/hr temp worker, like me), who is a young guy, soon to be married (a day after my birthday next year) to a cute girl (as seen on his "desktop pic" on his Iphone) gets hugely discouraged at the fact that he's 27 years old and just starting a job that doesn't even bring home the bacon...I try and console him with; "you could be me, and start over at age 48..." now, I've been thru hell and back with good and bad jobs over the many years, so I try and explain the wave-like ups and downs of the economy as time goes on.  sometimes it's not ones fault that they are in the financial situation they're in...I use myself as an example. one minute (cosmic minute) I'm working a Manpower job that I hate, struggling to make ends meet, borrowing from the kindness of my sister to find a place to crash, the next, I'm paying off huge credit card debt (some 23k) via a good job at the boat factory and able to comfortably survive...next thing ya know, I'm on unemployment for two years, and now I'm feelin' good about just gettin' back to work makin' next to nothin'.  I'm not sure any of my talk helped him, but he'll grow up and realize that it's all cyclical (and, it's just stupid money for fucks sake....) things could be a lot worse!!! dude, you got yer health, you got your bride to be, you got...(other stuff that he hasn't accounted for because his mind is clouded with the all mighty dollar. I've been there...and prob'ly lost my way a time or two because of it).  I remember being young and discouraged myself simply from not having any experience to draw from.  maybe we should take a page from my dog.  she simply craves being loved, and that's it.  money is good, but being we only got 80 years (+/-) on this goofy planet, it shouldn't even matter.  that said. lot rent is due. can I borrow some money?  hehe....*fart*

I'm not even gonna spell/grammar check. I'm tired and need a shower.  deal widdit

got a lot of stuff done on Friday. dishes, laundry, sweep/vacuum, more laundry, more dishes (yeah, I was fallin' behind a bit on clean-up). I also hit the temp agency with my routing number info, to change their check payment from that silly debit card to direct deposit, and, while I was out, I filled the tank mit petrol, and did some food shopping.  called the hospital to pay this months bill (throat crack payment.  only $301. to go, and it's mine), as well as do some online banking. busy day, for a day off...later, the Pooperdog and I do some front porch sittin' and watch Full Metal Jacket (wait, I wrote about this all ready. nebb mind).  Saturday; woke up with a stinger throat again. I take a giant nap in the middle of the day. Jay comes over in the evening and borrows my grill.  I watch grindhouse 'planet terror' on the 'puter as the rack of ribs cook, and drink some beers. he tells me to watch the food and make sure it doesn't burn, while he goes back to his house and yacks with another neighbor. an hour goes by (grills on lowest setting) he comes over and flips the rack.  about another hour goes by, so I turn the grill off.  he comes over maybe a half an hour after that, turns the grill back on, and adds bar-b-que sauce. another hour goes by....anyway, we were eating charred black mammal flesh, by the time he pulls it off the grill.  he blames it on the neighbor that he was jaw-jackin' with. I tried savin' it, by turning the grill off when I thought it was done, but...oh well.  even blackened ribs taste mighty fine after a dozen beers.  this isn't the first time that he's miss-judged the timing.  that last rack he made on his charcoal grill was burnt beyond all recognition, due to paying attention meant time away from drinking and bullshittin'.

wake up this morning with a crappy throat, half a cold feeling. I'm thinkin' a giant nap will be on the agenda again today...

later:  stoopid Lions!!! starting yet another season where they win 2 of 3 preseason games, with a win-less regular season record (0-3).  off to a great start.  good gawd! why am I still a fan?!?!  my cold gets worse as the day progresses. I guess I'll have to make a run to the store and pick me up some NyQuil, so as I'll be ready for work tomorrow *plan*

alright.  something is wrong with my mouse. It wants to randomly make that ding dong affirmation as if you just plugged it into the USB port.  it's prob'ly 'cause I often move the laptop from the TV stand to the porch with mouse and plug-in cord dragging on the ground.  so far the mouse still works, it's just kind of annoying to hear ding dongs go off for no apparent reason, and of course, if the mouse does take a dooky I can always use the laptop mouse pad (even though I feel mentally retarded using it...ah, mouses are cheap enough). 

had half the windows open and the heater on last night.  it's gettin' to that point where it's down right cold at night, and warm during the day. if only there were a way to bottle the coolness and release it when the sun bakes the place?  I got a 14x70 trailer with a 3 foot tall crawl space underneath. maybe install a giant insulated tank that breaths the cool air in, and releases it into the house in the afternoon (yeah, I'm sure that'd be cost effective...). 

whoa. I realize, as I'm finishing off that last sentence, that I was still on laptop battery power. it only had minutes left before it would have blunked (word?) off.  I only would have lost the top two paragraphs in the crash, but it reminded me of when [back some 10 years ago] I worked for hours and hours on a song (using Sonic Foundry software), simply to have it all get lost in the blink of an eye when, say, the power goes out in the house.  DAMMIT!! how many badly made songs were lost in the vacuumous void of nowheresville? prob'ly dozens. oh well. soon after, they cleverly came out with battery backups. I paid over 70 bucks for my first backup, just so I had a couple minutes after a power outage to save what I was working on. I may have used it once since.  come to think of it, I no longer own a backup. what did I ever do with it?!  prob'ly got mixed in with a good will stuff, or thrown out.  maybe it puked? I have no idea.  weird.  there's a couple sweat shirts that have gone by the wayside as well.  what ever happened to my MSU sweatshirt. I loved that thing. gone. prob'ly lost during one of my many moves?

drank some beers out on the porch, with the dog, and watched Full Metal Jacket (for the 49th time) last night.  that scene at the end when they're walking thru the destruction and carnage, singing the Mickey Mouse theme...CLASSIC!

anyway.  gotta find some grubbage. I'm all zingy with caffeine...

simple observation:  so how is it, I'm able to step into the first job I sign up for, after not looking for work for two whole years, yet people are still crying about how hard it is to find jobs here in Michigan?!.  work is work people. put your college degrees away and hit the welder with me...maybe find your dream job when the Recession is over.

am I right, or am I right? right? right! BING!

[here's hopin' I don't eat these words by being too cocky sounding, then later losing said job...although, I'd prob'ly like the taste of crow?]

I'm glad I bought those prescription work glasses. they've helped a lot, especially when working the end of the conveyor where you have to check welds and so on. my eyes are gettin' pretty bad...

work includes learning more production handling, checking parts off the conveyor, as well as continuing to run the welder. the last  couple hours of last night was the 4 of us filling 2-40 yard dumpsters with scrap parts (amazing! throwing out so much stuff makes ya wonder if the company makes any money at all?). I guess they reclaim some of their loss by selling it to a scrap metal yard, but some of this stuff is pretty intricate (looking as if they'd gone thru many a process before being determined "scrap").

2 weeks have gone by and I've still only worked one 12 hour day (out of what was supposed to be mandatory 12's, 7 days a week)! I really don't mind. I seem to be the only one in our dept. that would rather be doing something other than work (slack hangover, if you will).  Tuesday, I was able to go home (if I wanted, and I did) before lunch.  shweet! I dig this part time/full time work! the lady (our fill-in boss) comes 'round with a clipboard at about 4pm (Thursday) and asks who wants to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? (wait, WHAT?! we have the option to have Friday off too?! done!). I take the 3 day weekend, even though that only leaves me with a 31 hour check this week (oh well, I worked 49 last week, so it sort of evens it out). I get my first "check" from the temp agency (first, of any sort of income, in 11 weeks!). it's not actually in check form (hence the quotes). it's put on a debit card, where I have to find one of their (Chase bank) ATM's and withdraw the cabbage, then, turn around and deposit it into my regular checking.  I'm hittin' my temp service today and see if I can simply have them change this to direct deposit (I don't see why they couldn't), saving me the step of running around....

my body seems a bit less wracked with muscle pain compared to last week, although, I'm still hittin' the Aleve and Ibuprofen like they're M&M's.  it's a strenuous job! especially when running the welder with parts they call "pilot" (I guess Honda makes a car called a 'Pilot'). these are kind of a bitch to run, especially if you have no one to "break" them (each part needs to be "broken" with this special hand tool that opens the area where the recliner parts fit), adding this extra step while running the welder is the straw that breaks the camels ass (what?).  after about 9 hours of hoofing along on this machine, things get exhausting. luckily, I can usually grab Matt and trade with him for a spell (I do the same for him when he runs it). even 31 hours of work makes my hands and body feel like they've been thru a huge work out. it's a damn boot camp. it's like night and day compared to my 2 years of slackage! the people I work with are pretty cool! the weld dust and smoke arent' helping my throat crack any, but hey, I'm workin' thru it...

there's a lot of cute girls that work in this god forsaken place.  so, in the break room, there sits the loveliest girl, always by herself.  she's amazingly pretty, prob'ly in her early 40's, long flowing hair with a model figure (what she doin' workin' at the smoke factory?!  not that pretty girls can't handle this kind of work. I don't wanna sound all sexist, and what-not) I ask Craig about her, he says she's cool, but speaks very little English.  damn cute (you know, there's regular cute, and DAMN cute...she falls into the latter)!  my neighbor (who also works at the smoke factory) is currently off due to his hernia.  He's had the operation, but thinks he went back to work too soon, and re-injured something.  yesterday, he was hinting around at the fact that Angie (a girl at our lunch table) is kind of cute. he later, proceeds to tell me about a sexual tryst he's been having with her...yeah, that's why your hernia hurts dude. don't blame it on work.  I spent a good 5 hours  trying unsuccessfully to delete a stubborn virus from his 'puter. we eventually reinstalled windows 7 (after he tells me that there's nothing important on the 'puter that he'll miss), and threw on a free anti-virus and called it good.  he gives me a couple beers for my troubles (no troubles.  it's kind of fun for me to do computer junk).

drank some beers with Rosie out on the porch last night, catching up on the past weeks worth of 'the daily show with Jon Stewart', 'the Colbert Report', and 'ABC world news' via Hulu.com/laptop.

MORE COFFEE!!

oh yeah, a small story about work.  seems while I was running my welding machine, there was an annoying QA girl who was checking every part before I ran them, with a bolt, to pass or reject a certain seat belt nut...I'm mindin' my own business, doin' what I gots to do, when WHAM! my machine fixture takes a crap. Mario (my original trainer) looks at the situation and says "oh no, QA left her bolt in this part".  now to explain as best as I can without pictures, there are many clamps that hold all the parts onto the fixture. among them are small clamps that clamp onto both sides of the part, where the seat belt nut is, and because she forgot to remove the bolt she was using to gauge with, it broke the fixture clamp and twisted the part into the fixture, making it hard to manually un-clamp the part to see what happened.  maintenance worked on it for a spell, they detach the broken clamp, meanwhile, I tell the QA lady what she did.  she says; "I wondered where that bolt went..." in an unapologetic way,  then added "I want you to check every part to make sure there's no bolts in the way". I'm thinkin'; way to own up to your accident. how about if you make sure and not leave bolts where they're not supposed to be. this is one example of why I added the word 'annoying' as a descriptor.  another is, while she checks the parts on the rack, she'll put some of them back on backwards, adding an extra step for me.  yet another annoyance is the fact that she started working here that same day, and all ready gives commands like she's the boss "only four per rack, I'm not doing any more than four!"  shut up [I'm thinkin'], it's easier for everyone if there's 5 per. why does she gotta be special?! I pretty much ignore her because the rest of the stuff that comes from her pie hole is pretty much whiny complaints about (...I'm not sure what? because I choose to ignore her).  the only thing that I feel bad for her, is the fact that she's about 4 foot 3 and the racks look designed for someone 5 foot or taller, so I try and not overload the top racks.  It takes all she's got just to reach those parts, so I'll give her that much mercy. otherwise...everyone else there seems pretty cool (so far).  I haven't run into anyone yet who takes the "let's treat the new guy like dirt" approach, and that's way cool!

so I'm sittin' here, doin' my online banking, with the thought that next week Friday was the end of the month (I'm not sure how I got into that mindset?).  I was concerned about how tight the budget would be after I made rent, but come to find out, I have an extra week before I gotta worry about it (bonus!).  hospital payment, and homeowners insurance will come out of this Fridays paycheck, and rent will come out of the next. (we're golden!).  yep, it's bidness as usual.  back to living paycheck to paycheck, but that's what I've been used to pretty much my whole life.  so far, this year, I've made about 8 grand for income, as well as about 3 1/2 G's from a pulled 401k, putting me just under the poverty level (so far... gotta look up the official poverty level. I think it's 12 1/2 thousand or less per year?).  I may break just over poverty as long as I keep rollin' with the new job...having said all that, I don't have any extraordinary bills, mortgage payments, or car payments, so again, we're golden!  in fact, I'd like to keep things afloat around $800 to a grand a month, then squirrel away every thing else, over and above that, into savings (to rebuild somewhat of an "emergency fund" thinger).  *plan*

looks like a nice day (Sunday).  drinkin' some coffee, gettin' ready for a pooperdog walk...

the place is gigantic! It takes about 10 minutes just to walk from one side of the building to the other. massive assembly lines and weld machines as far as the eye can see.  first day at the shop,  they let me go after 9 hours (no, not for good, my boss simply asked if I'd like to split because we are ahead of the game in our dept.) I run a giant weld machine that has a big ass turn table divided in half by a curtain.  a fixture is placed on both sides of the turntable.  I stand in front and load parts into the fixture, then hit the buttons.  the turntable rotates until the other half's fixture comes to a stop. I load parts on it, while the other side welds the parts that I had affixed from the last cycles run.  a robot then picks the freshly welded part and places it onto a conveyor for someone else to work on, down the line.  lather, rinse, repeat, for a billion cycles and...you get the idea.  these parts are about 13 lbs a piece (or more?) which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're whippin' 'em around at light speed (trying to keep pace with the welder) for 9 to 12 hours,  it takes a toll on this old frame!  Ibuprofen and Aleve help quell the muscle aches.  it's a real work out!  it's as greasy and smelly (acrid weld smell) as any metal shop.  I gotta come home and wash my clothes instantly or the oily smell permeates the air in the wood-panel submarine something fierce, then take a shower with that industrial orange cleaner shit to get the grease off...it's a GREAT job.  it's just like the Grand Rabbits Spring and Stamp place I mentioned working at, but tons huger, minus those noisy ass metal stamp machines that make gigantic slamming noises (bonus!).

the cool part (so far) is I've only worked one whole 12 hour day this week.  temp agency tells me mandatory 12's for 7 days (84 hours). I'm putting in 9 hours here, 8 hours there (totaling 49 hours this week) , with the weekend off.  shweet! I hope every week is as golden

HOLY EVIL BIG TOE BLISTERS!! I'm guessin' all those barefoot pooperdog walks only helped toughen the souls, so they're fine, it's the tops/sides of my toes that are gettin' destroyed.

all right. the above was written on Wednesday, then saved to draft because I was too tired to hit 'save'. I currently have today (Saturday) off, so maybe I'll try and bore you with how my week went. Monday (written above) was killer painful, Tuesday I got to learn how to do a fixture change over. the job we changed to was a lot tougher.  had I started my first day on this one, I'd prob'ly had said goodbye after the first 10 minutes.  I struggled thru and somehow survived.  meanwhile my body feels as if I'm on the 3rd week of  the P90X workout program.  ouch!! 12 hours of pure torture! Wednesday, was a bit easier...back to the job I ran on Monday.  Surviving yesterdays horrible job made Wednesday's work seem, in comparison,  like a piece of cake.  Thursday, I got to train a new guy on the press.  we traded every other shot. he'd run one, then I'd run one, etc. making it that much easier.  then about 3/4's of the way thru, we get thrown on the bigger press.  we tag team learn it. it has a longer cycle, so there's actual time to bullshit (and rest) a bit between shots. Thursday, the new guy and I tag team the original press again. about two hours into the shift, the power blinks out for about 20 seconds. It's pitch black and dead quiet, followed by a roar of people cheering.  cool!  it takes maintenance awhile to get every thing back up and running.  Friday, we work the same press together again, but this time in hour blocks, so the person who's free can learn how to production handle.  HEY, WAKE UP!! i'm not done tellin' you about my week yet.

the cool hippy lady comes over (at least once a day) and lets the Rosie outside to do her thing.  she's laughs at the dogs antics. sometimes she can be stubborn and not wanna leave the porch, or during a walk, she'll poop and then just lay down. no amount of coaxing will get her to stand back up, until she wants to stand up.  she also likes to just stop at times and pretend she's a statue. it's these little lovable idiosyncrasies that make her the coolest dog in the world.I think it's her way of saying "I'm the boss...we're doing what I want". I let her win.  she, sadly, can't have a lot of time left, so I spoil her rotten.

the dog and cat conspire to wake me up in the middle of the night.  Rosie will whine to be let out (even though I just let her out, say, not long ago), so I'll shew (shoe?) her out of my room and close the door.  I'll just nicely get back to sleep, and the cat will paw continuously upon my door until I bang on the wall with my foot. I'll then, just nicely get back to sleep and more pawing ensues until I open my door (to make the cat stop pawing). that's when the dog will come back in and lay down next to my bed.  I'll just nicely go back to sleep and Rosie starts whining again (ahhh for FORK SAKE!!).  luckily, this is a random occurrence.    If it were to happen every night, I'd have to make some changes...but, so far so good.  how do you convince your mammals that you need sleep, so you can work...? do they make pet sleeping pills? yeah, prob'ly not

it's currently 7:30 am, and 'across the way Jay' just stumbled over (already half in the bag).  we yack for 20 minutes then he splits to get more Jack and coke...meanwhile, I'm over dosing on strong black coffee.

anyhow.  here comes the rain.  I need more coffee. squids are squishy. spam.  (....)

rain (blah).  good temp wise to front porch sit with an ol' dog and write in my bland blahg...

good gawd, It's like the day before being shipped off to Kandahar on another tour of duty (wait, why'd I write "another"...? I've never served.  anyway). I sleep in, thinking today and tomorrow will be the only time I'll ever be able to sleep in again.   here's why; Thursday, I hit yet another temp agency, and the only thing they have to offer is a job that works 4-12 hour days (mon-thu. fine. i can dig that), currently with mandatory overtime which could (and prob'ly will) include 12'ers on Fri, Sat, and Sunday as well (not so diggable).   I can't say as I've ever worked an 84 hour week, but it looks like I'll be experiencing it real soon (wish me luck!  here's hopin' this almost 50 year old frame can take that kind of shellacking!).  the gig runs from 6:30am to 6:30pm.  why'd I sign up for such an assignment (you might ask)?! it seems to be the only gig in town available at the drop of a hat.  I also consider it because I have two neighbors, Laura (of 'Laura and Tank' fame) and Mike (two trailers east of me), both my age, who currently work there, and they still seem to be kickin' (Laura, btw, says "it's easy work", Mike says "it's bust ass"...he should have maybe said "bust groin", currently in recovery mode from a hernia operation, and all).  anyway.  I'll be coming off from over 2 years of complete slackage into a sink or swim, possible "bust ass" long hours scenario.   this will test my mettle!  I'll have to utilize that bathtub and epsom salt along with stretches to relieve my tired back (reminiscent of the days when I started work at Grand Rabbits Spring and Stamp).  as far as Rosie goes,  the cool old hippy lady son, down the road, agrees to take her for a walk 'round noon each day, while he's off from work (due to knee surgery recovery).  I'll make it right with him.

I just get off the phone with the 'squatch. we yack for a half an hour, mostly about me weirding out (...see above), then he says he and his girly will have a hot dinner waiting for me at my house when I get home Monday night(!!).  wow! how cool is that?!

Jay stops by while I'm typing.  he wants to know if I'd help him renew his plate tabs online...? sure! get that done, drink some coffee and bullshit about nothin'.  he seems to know a lot about where I'm going to work. he explains the whole shop. I ask him how he knows? "I used to work there back in the 80's".  he tells me that 3/4's of the place is plastic injection molding(!). here I thought it was all metal stamp and the like.  I got 17 years in plastic injection molding. maybe I'll do better than I give myself credit.  cool! that seems to help my fear of the unknown, a bit.  he also tells me I could be making a dollar more an hour if I had signed up with different temp agency (he didn't have to tell me that.  no worries. I'll make it work none-the-less).

cool hippy chicks son invites me to go with him to the drag races today, but I'm thinkin' this kind of weather isn't conducive to 200+ mph quarter mile runs.

the Kid calls me yesterday.  we do chicken wings (the teriyaki wings tasted like they were dipped in chocolate.  did I mention my taster/smeller thinger is off, due to my throat crack? prob'ly).  we watch the movie 'Inception' (cool ass movie!! multi-layered and chocked full of cool special effects). two thumbs up!! It's always good to catch up wid da Kid!

still rainin' like a biotch! I check the hourly forecast for Jay and find out that it's supposed to stop 'round 9pm (he wanted to know, so he could build his hillbilly trailer trash camp fire in his yard, to sit around, drink beers, and bullshit).

let's break open old wounds, shall we? yep, Mittens calls me, crying her eyes out (once again), about this and that and everything else miserable under the sun.  she wishes the world would explode like a paint can thrown onto a bonfire (nice metaphor). as she's pondering the reasons for her miserable existence, she goes way back to her childhood and expounds on an over bearing highly religious father that she still fears [...an hour and 10 minutes go by before the story gets all the way up to where she is currently].  just like old times, but back then it was all easier to listen to because I had feelings for her.  today, I found myself feeling uncomfortable and trying to change the subject to funny things that her dog (Rosie used to be her dog) does (like the sneezing/barking story I told yesterday).  she doesn't put 2 and 2 together (my life is miserable because I expound on every thing miserable=misery).  i imagine, even if she had come into huge amounts of money, and moved to where she considered to be the greatest spot on earth, with a mansion to her floor plan specs, and a man servant to cater to her every need, and the perfect husband,  she'd still find something miserable and dwell on it in her teary eyed drama queen fashion. now, having said all that, I find it better than ok to cry over a dog that she just lost, but everything else within the conversation is just...I wanna grab her and shake her violently, and say just let go! not everything needs to be over-dramatized.  ya know what I mean?! [said in an over-dramatized fashion]  it's bad when I gotta hit the decompression chamber, after a phone call from her, to rid the body of these noxious misery rants. nothing like an emotional case of the bends.

I visit Manpower temp agency yesterday.  I'm still in their computer from when I worked for them 6 years ago! all I had to do was update my address and phone number and I was good to go. now for the dog's sake, I put in my preferences that I'd like to work any shift as long as it's an 8 hour shift (for Rosie/potty sake).  they had nothing available, so I split. I apply for Gentex online (it's a car mirror factory here in town, that has "we're hiring" signs out front).  I also go to another temp agency  (Kelly Services) with the idea of signing up, but the place was beyond packed.  I'll come back tomorrow.  I call Manpower back the next day (today), and change my preference to any shift, 8, 10, 12 hours a day (we'll work out the Rosie/potty thing later). they still didn't have anything available.  I drive back to Kelly services.  It's a bunch less packed. I told the guy that I'd like to sign up, but he points at the clock and says I've just missed the deadline for applying (they take applications in the morning, and the rest of the day is strictly for whatever else? I obviously don't know how these places work). I told him that I'd be back tomorrow morning to apply.  he seemed more than enthusiastic about there being a lot of work available and what not. that's a good sign. I hope he's not just blowing smoke up my skirt (i'll find out tomorrow).  if, by chance, Kelly has nothing, I'll have to start wall papering the city with my resume (something I should have done anyway, but hey...) now I could agonize all I want about my money situation gettin' low and jobs being hard to find, but my beer is calling, and my ass needs to be seated on the front porch with nothing but pleasant thoughts, and maybe play some on-line billiards...and life is good!

my plumbing work in the bathroom is doing well, but as I'm brushing my teef, I notice the floor is buckled due to water damage.  nice! it's prob'ly particle board sub flooring, that, like a sponge, expands ruining the tongue and groove floor nailed on top of it. oh well. it's not a biggy. I can live with a buckled floor. I'll fix it when I win the lotto

mowed the lawn in hurricane force winds yesterday. by the time I was done, I felt like I had dirt and leaves stuck in every pore of my body.   man, I'm diggin' this cool weather at nights. I sleep like a rock when it's in the low 60's~

oh yeah, beer...

starts off kind of crappy and rainy, but turns nice 'round 2pm.  my throat was way better this morning...guess it was just a sand burr that went down the wrong tube. it seems to have passed, now with that said, I still have that cracked throat condition (that i only have $311.00 to pay on, and it's mine!) but won't expound on that any more than I have too, for fear that it turns into a journal entry about details behind a cracked throat, and I don't wanna sound bitchy...I have too many entries on the topic to spell it all out again. so let's move on

the NFL network (see link below) has satisfied my football itch to no end!  I watch the Minnesota v. Denver game, the the dolphins v. chargers, then Kansas City v (who'd they play again?!)...of course, as I mentioned below, people like to come over and ask favors during one of my games. there was only 4 minutes to go in the 4th in the Minnesota game. they were ahead by a touchdown, when a neighbor comes over and asks if I can take him to Menard's to grab a couple 4x8 sheets of  plywood (being he doesn't have a truck, and I do). I never did find out who won that game. I should have said come back in a half an hour, but (once again) no worries. I'm sure I can get the scores off from NFL.com. I made a quick 5 bucks for my troubles, so all is good!

Jay comes over today while it was raining. already half in the bag by noon. he's bored, so he watches me play some video golf and decides quickly that this isn't the place to be, to find something more exciting than his house.  he splits and on his way out he mentions grillin' up some ribs, if the weather breaks.  he mentions bringing some over...cool!

we did yack for a good 10 minutes before he split, he gives me a lead on a job where you work 12 hour days Friday and Saturday, then 12 hour nights Monday and Tuesday. I've gotten this lead before from Laura, and a neighbor 2 east of my place (who both currently work there).  maybe I'll look into it.  they have a day shift too, but it sounds like you gotta work a million 12  hour days in a row.  honestly, I'm not sure I like either schedule, but if that's all there is to offer, I best grab something soon. my money tree can only pretty much cover me 'till October.  I guess for the dog's sake (as well as mine), I'd love to fall into an 8 hour gig (doesn't matter what shift).  maybe I'll see if there's something along those lines.  I'm heading to a couple temp places early tomorrow to see what I can find (I know, I've threatened this before, but tomorrow is do or die, sink or swim,  grilled or fried)

Bambi Mittens writes me via email (as per normal about once a week) about her kid (who rents a room from snowmobile guy) witnessing his dog getting whopped by an 18 wheeler right in front of his house. poor dog!  (it's prob'ly the first email I had ever gotten from her where she's not bitching about her current situation, or work).  bad news indeed! I guess the good news is the dog died instantly. no suffering. it was just a pup, less than a year old (...did I mention 'sad'?)

otherwise; clean the shack (laundry, dishes, etc.), barefoot pooperdog walks, power-naps, front porch beer drinkin' slackage with an old dog, etc...

oh yeah, something I forgot to mention that was kinda funny! I used to have sneezing fits a lot back when. well, I had one yesterday (i'm guessin' it's the first one I've had since I've had the pooperdog around). I sneezed a good 20 times, and with each one, the dog chimes in with her goofy barking.  she doesn't bark that much at anything to begin with, so I find the whole thing most amusing. (yeah, ya had to be there, I guess).

hehe...i keep thinking of something else to type while I burn my minestrone. I mention the trailer directly across from me was sold. the 'bickersons' (as I affectionately label them) move out by the 1st, the new neighbors move in last night. I was sittin' on the porch, watchin' football, when two trucks pull into the drive.  many people bail out. they appear as if they lost their key(?) due to the long time it takes just to get the door open (nothing like breaking in to your own house).  today they're unloading their stuff, and I see some baby walkers and the like in the mix.  dammit!  it's so quiet on this corner, I mean over and above the old neighbors screamin' at each other. I'll miss that. I guess my point is I hope this quiet corner doesn't turn into kid central like the area around by the pool...seems the double wide to the west of cutie neighbors has a child as well, but it's just a newborn, so that's ok. ...listen to me, trying to be all child Nazi controller guy. *fart*

hey, who burnt the minestrone?!

[priddy girl pic to break up the bland blahgage...yer welcome]

weird dreams last night. they involved that real feeling you have when you're afraid of heights (like I sometimes am). woke up with a stinger throat (you know the one). I'm thinkin' it's from firing up the heater a couple days back, and having a mushroom cloud of dust (and sicky mites) waft through out the wood-panel submarine. hind sight says I should have fired it up while the windows were still open (I prob'ly think that every year 'round this time).  anyway, I do me a bowl of raisin bran crunch with cut up bananas. (the crunchy flakes actually seem to feel good to my raggedy throat!). I call my sis to cancel today's visit, for fear of giving them the bug (sorry for poopin' out on ya.  have a nice weekend anywho!).  as I'm cutting up the banana into my cereal, I notice that they're turning brown fast (good for banana bread, not much else). so I got out the blender and threw everything that isn't too brown into that, along with what I can salvage from the peaches, the rest of the strawberries, and a pinch of orange juice to make another batch of fruit smoothie type drinks (it can only help a torched throat). I'm surprised at how fast this fruit turns bad!  next, I gotta pay attention to these tomatoes, and corn on the cob...I know tators can last a long time. 

I didn't even know it was a holiday weekend, 'til a neighbor (then me sis) mentions it. I'm so out of touch with holidays. I'm sure I'll pay closer attention to them when I get back to work.

yesterday, while grabbing the last roll of toilet paper from the wrapper, i pull the wrapper out from under the sink to throw it out, only to get the floor all wet! uh oh! upon closer inspection, I have a tub full of bathroom cleaners, and the like, also filled with water.  long story-short, I emptied the cupboard of everything exposing the plumbing in the back. yep!  got a 'T' that's got a slow leak (how long has that been leaking?...that'd account for the musty smell in the bathroom). I take a picture of it, along with a piece of the pipe (for reference sake), and head to Menard's.  the man was able to set me up with some compression fittings and a PVC cutter. I get home, and start hackin' off the old plumbing, and throwing on the new. it didn't take long. I did, however, run into problems when I had to go outside to turn the water on, then run all the way back in to see if there were any leaks...yep. run back outside to turn the water off again. Jay sees me runnin' around like a chicken, so he comes over to help, saving me from all that exercise.  eventually, we got the plumbing fixed, but now (strangely enough) the sink doesn't want to turn off all the way.  at least the drip is going down the sink and not the cupboard floor. I can deal with that. I should replace both the kitchen and bathroom faucets (when I win the lotto).

double checked on my plumbing job this afternoon, only to see that there is just as bad of a leak, as the broken 'T' that I fixed earlier, this time at the threaded part that attaches directly to the sink,  . I stop off at Maynard's and get a couple of shut-0ff valves, and some flex hose to fix it...adding another $22 on top of the $44 I spent yesterday. anyway, the shut-off valve on the cold line was giving me fits until I took it back apart, and looked inside seeing the rubber seal got pushed out of its nest. I use a screw driver to re-align the seal, then affix the pvc back in. this time, I turn the water on, and it's good to go! now, there's still a leak in the faucet itself, but I'll fix that laterz.

old leaky cheese bucket set-up (above) vs. new compression fittings/flex hose shutoff valves (below)

now, hopefully I'll not have to mess with it again, for a long long time!

"how'd you like the (pause) videos?"  videos? oh he means the 'girls gone wild', 'barely legal' magazines that he gave me, that I promptly threw away. I reply; "yeah, they were...wait, one thing you don't understand is, the internet is chocked with porn...it's like  90% porn...", "yeah" he says,"but you can't get it for free, can ya?" has this guy NEVER been on the internet?! later, I tell this to the 'squatch, and he tells me Charlie Manson (Ron) is one of those people who are so afraid of going on line for fear big brother (said with air quotes) is watching". so, not only does the man (according to people who know Ron) have a rap sheet longer than his arm, is a woman beater, but he also thinks the men and black are secretly watching him? plus, the way he throws 'end of the world' bible shit around, and his dirty hippy throw back appearance (including missing and rotten teef), makes him sound more and more like a candidate for the asylum.  did I mention that he clicks into a southern accent when he becomes preachy?  he's a real kook!

mostly cloudy, strong west to east winds in the 60's describe both yesterday and today.

I bring over some food pantry items to Jay 'round 10am yesterday.  he's already half in the bag (being a third shifter, he starts drinkin' 'round 7am). he's appreciative, but kind of gives me shit, like I'm treating him like a charity case. "no dude, these are leftovers that I can never eat on my own before they go bad".  he calms down a bit, and offers me a beer. "nah, thanks...too early". I went home to set up the laptop on a folding chair, out on the porch, and proceeded to watch me some football via the NFL channel linked thru the website I mentioned yesterday.  that strong wind was just cool enough were I had to get me a sweat shirt.  Brian (cool hippy chick neighbors kid) came over and wanted to know how to upload a picture onto his dating profile.  we did that a minute, followed by another neighbor stopping by wanting me to download some anti spy-ware onto a thumb drive. (can't these people stop by when there's no game on?!) by the time I was able to get back to football, the link stopped working.  dammit!  no worries.  I got a couple hours of football fix in, so all was not lost...

made me one of those blender drinks for breakfast. you know the one, where you throw in a couple bananas, a peach, some strawberries, orange juice, etc.  good stuff (as well as a good way to use up some of these fresh groceries)! ...speaking of which, upon closer inspection, most of these peaches that I got from the food pantry aren't good. oh well.  they were free. maybe I'll throw 'em into the woods and try and start a  peach tree farm amongst the maples and oaks

did a sixer of Shlitz, power-napped, barefoot dog walks, mostly leftover ribs, with an ear of corn thrown in for funnzies (are there two N's in 'funnzies'? never mind) for grubbage, watched a dumb Iraq war movie (title escapes me...yeah, it was that bad). 

[pretty girl pic to  break up the blandness of my blahg. yer welcome].  (...and yes, that's the lovely Linda O'neil, if you were wondering. goodness! she's beauty-ful!)

a facebook friend steers me toward a website where I can watch football online (shweet!). www.atdhe.net (it looks like a shady website, with poor graffix, and a porn ad banner, but seems to work well.  use at your own risk). I watch the Lions win in awe (first, because they won, and second...), that technology has come so far, as to making the TV nearly obsolete. I never thought, even 10 years ago, that the land line phone, and the TV would ever go away.  they're both so iconic and embedded into our culture for over 50 years, now on the [near] extinction list along with the VCR, stereo equipment, and wrist watches.  amazing!  anyway, after watching the Lions game, I look on the link to see what else is playing and am taken aback at the fact that I can watch other football games usually only broadcast on the NFL pay channel! and on top of that, they rebroadcast some of the games the next day...! shweet!  now, I can only hope that this website works for regular season games (this being preseason, and all.  we'll see come next week). it'd be even more fantastic if they played the Superbowl on it (...but, again, we'll see).

I hit the food pantry yesterday, to supplement the few items I already have in my fridge. being that I was almost the last person in line, they were pushing real hard that I take extra so as nothing is left on the truck. I came home with tons of peaches, corn on the cob, bananas, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, etc.  my body won't know what to do with so much fresh fruit and veggies?! there's far too much for me to eat, so I'll divide it into 3rds and distribute what's leftover to Jay and me sis...

nice and cool in the 60's this morning for our barefoot pooperdog walk.  feels like autumn is on its way....

Pandora radio (Bill Laswell).  nice chill music.

I go to the 'squatches Tuesday night for some yummy burritos and a good ass whoopin' at golf.  the temperature outside was 98 degrees, so leaving the 72 degree AC comfort of my house, driving 45 minutes without AC, then arriving at their place (which is chilled to about 65 degrees), gets me all dizzy like...maybe I'm just a wuss. that's prob'ly it.

latest Netflix movies include a documentary on Noam Chompsky titled; 'Power and terror', and another on Howard Zinn titled; 'you can't be neutral', along with a documentary on the bungling of the Iraq war called 'No End in Sight' (seems I'm on a documentary roll).  all real good! I also watch an early George Lucas film called THX 1138 (1971) which I handily fell asleep to. 

pooperdog and I need to take us a walk.  it's raining, but we'll survive...

I've seen plenty o' scary movie, but nothing...not even a chainsaw wielding dude in an apron, wearing human skin face for a mask, is as scary as my neighbor (Charlie Manson) knockin' at my door, showing off his scrawny farmer tanned frame (bein' shirtless, and all), peering in thru my screen door with his wild eyed, long haired, rotten toothed, scraggly beard grin. I'm in the middle of playing golf, but pause the game to see what the wild man wants.  he was smoking, so instead of inviting him in, I quickly go outside and yack with him on the porch. he seems all giddy, like he's on fockin' airplane glue.  he starts by saying "so, I was at the gas station earlier today, and as I'm rummaging thru their garbage (for empty pop cans, I assume?) I find a bag full of magazines!" he hands me a rolled up 'girls gone wild' magazine and points at the price tag. "look...$9.99!", quickly thinking he's trying to sell me the damn thing, I tell him I don't have any money [besides, I can get much better porn off the internet].  he hates it when people jump to conclusions before his story is done.  not only will he tell his story slowly, repeat things often, and say "are you with me so far?" a lot,  if you try and beat him to the punch, he gets all uptight. most times he'll start his story all over again, to make sure I'm following it correctly. so he does...I let him finish knowing that if I don't,  he'll start it all up again (are you with me so far?). after a long winded rant, all he wanted was to give me some porno mags that he found in a bag, from the trash, emphasizing the price of each one, as if to say, somehow I owe him a return favor worth $23...after he left, I threw the magazines out and continued my golf game.  amazing!

I tell Jay the story about Ronald (c. Manson) having a past history of roughing up women (according to Marv), and he tells me "oh yeah, I've known Ron since he was a kid, he's been in and out of prison for everything from Heroin and cocaine to domestic abuse".   what?!  I knew the guy was an odd duck, but the more I hear, the more I'm weirded out about the weird guy.

in the hallway, there's what looks like a fire alarm, with a little indicator light, showing me that it's operational, yet when i hit the 'test' button, it makes no noise. it does absolutely nothing. the object is big and prob'ly as old as the trailer itself. I decide to take it down, un-wire it, cut the wire from my explosive gas detector, splice it in, and mount it where the old detector was. when I threw the breaker on, it made a couple pops, and a smoke puff...oops! that was the end of that. my $35 explosive gas detector internally combusted.  maybe I should have then unhooked it, and given it to Ron, pointing at the price tag. I did unhook it. electric taped the leads, and mounted the old unit back up...then threw away the burnt unit.  oh well. I'm not as concerned with explosive gas problems anyway, since I've [pretty much] fixed my water heater problems...

the other day, I'm porch sittin' with my ol' dog and I hear what sounds like a huge tree falling. man, that was close! but upon closer inspection (staring into the dense woods) I see nothing. where'd that sound come from?! there are some pretty damn tall trees 15 feet behind my trailer. one is leaning precariously over my roof, with a trunk that's not lookin' so stable. something is boring into it, leaving little piles of sawdust, and one day, that sucker may come crashin' down.  here's hopin' it's not anytime soon.  now I see said tree is being infested by those little caterpillars that make those web-like nests killing off the branch that the web engulfs (more of a large web cocoon, then a "web"). this is the same tree that I've put many coats of tree paint over an area at the trunk that looked as if it got struck by lightning, hoping to slow down the deterioration...

otherwise; same ol' routine: barefoot pooperdog walks, power-naps, beer drinkin', vid golf,  porch sittin', etc..

Netflix movies include 'Memento' (good movie!),  re-watch the classic: 'Heat', along with a WW2 b-movie, and a documentary about product designers, and engineers (blah.).

the man that owns "the dragon wagon" (let's call him 'steve') is standing in his yard with a few yard sale items on a table. I yack with him for a spell, then notice a sign on his car...before reading it, I ask him if it's for sale. "nah, I'm starting my own business in custom painting cars". I tried not to laugh (seriously).  cool! he goes on to say "what better advertising than a car that's completely finished?" (I'll post a picture of it. it's mostly hand painted art work of his station wagon, then a solid background color [paintbrush painted] red everywhere else.  why he didn't paint the base red first, instead of the artwork, then meticulously going around his art, leaving some of the original blue, that the car started out as, is beyond me?).  he says' he wants to mimic "pimp my ride" where he'll do the body painting, and hire others to specialize in other details...(once again, I refrain from laffing), he also mentions the fact that he has a song that he's trying to get on the radio (?!). "It's called 'It's OK to cry' based on old time country's Hank Williams style". I tell him he should find an avenue (such as the internet) to promote his song, but he's afraid someone will steel it.  the guy's almost as quirky as Charlie Manson. the day before, I see him loading a mattress and a chair on top of the wagon at his son's house (his son lives inside the park as well), I (nosey like) ask him if he's movin' out? "yeah, you miss one payment, and you're gone, plus there's something haunted about the place (naturally!). he tries to explain something he saw on 'Ghost Hunters International' about an electronic pulse something or another that disrupts certain people's minds, and goes on to say that's what he suspects is going on every 4am, when his child wakes up screaming.  ok.  from there, I give him a good luck on your new venture, then ask where he's heading? "I don't know yet", yet he's got the wagon filled with his stuff, mattress and chair on top?! as they climb in and drive away, I notice a hand coming from both windows holding the mattress down...here's hopin' they don't jump on the expressway. 

ok, aside from me not much wanting to be a social butterfly, and don't do a lot of things with friends, or dating, I hope to the god's that I haven't turned as quirky as my neighbors!

made some more barbecue ribs in the crock pot last night (mmmmmmmmmmmms!!!), eaten, of course, with some 'tator salad.  had the same brunch this morning (leftovers are always yarmmier).  pulled some weeds today, in the cutie neighbors yard (out of boredom, and for some sun).

Netflix movies include the original 'Inglorious Bastard's', along with a Finnish movie, subtitled in English, called 'Dead Snow' (excellent zombie flick!).

Laura and Tank stop by, after seeing me and my dog front porch sittin'. "so this is where the barefoot dog walker lives?!".  I'm sure I've mentioned her before, she lives a couple streets down and west of me. she has to reintroduce herself. I quickly say "you're Laura, and that's Tank" (pointing at her dog).  she holds out her hand, waiting for me to tell her my name,  as if we had never met.  I've talked to her a couple 3 times since we first ran into one another while dog walkin', back when (I guess I didn't make a good first, second, or third impression).  she quickly apologizes for the 'demon spawn' of a child (a little hyper girl that was with her) and quickly explains that she and her dog were alone for 5 years, then she met this man, who had little kids...she didn't sound like she was happy within the situation. I mention the fact that when I start dating again, I'd like to find someone my age with either grown kids, or no kids. I notice a cool tattoo on her leg as they're leaving. it's of a small necklace chain rapped around her calf with a cross dangling from the end of it (the chain doesn't appear looped, it looks as if it's free falling). I'll have to ask the significance maybe the next time she (they) stop by.

I guess I gotta get serious about lookin' for work soon. as much as I love slackin', the money tree's gettin' bare. I only got about a grand left to live off from. that'll get me by for awhile, but I gotta keep in mind, that it may be as tough as they say it is to find work.  the 'squatch started a new job the other day, doing wood work.  he says it's a 2 dollar an hour raise from that last job that he had (cool!). I was supposed to go over to the 'squatches tonight for burrito's and vid golf, but my guts steer me the other way.  I suffer (on occasion) from real bad stomach problems (ulcers? I wouldn't be surprised the way I drink and don't eat right, etc).  he offers to try again Monday night...ok.

otherwise; barefoot walks with the pooperdog,  4 player one ball (Tiger Woods vid golf) against the computer players, reading a bit from my Philip K. Dick book (that guy has the coolest imaginative writing style!), power-naps, etc...

[the DRAGON WAGON!  ain't it a winner?! *fart*]

seems I may have mentioned another neighbor at one time (this one's back yard lines up with Charlie Mansons back yard. let's call him Marv), who'll talk your ear off about everything under the sun regarding himself, with little space between stories to try and escape. stories about his being overweight, his diabetes, his stint in Nam, you name it, once he's got you captive, he's telling his life story. I ran into him again last night, but this time, we got to talkin' about the dark side of Charles Manson (Ron).  seems he's got a history (according to this guy) of beatin' on women (not cool!).  he goes on to tell me that his [Marv's] x-wife (wife at the time) was a waitress at Denny's and came home early from work one day, crying, about a man named Ron who demanded his coffee, then belted her a good one against the coffee bar when his demands weren't immediately met, due to she was on her way with another order when he tried to stop her. he goes on to say, he went to Denny's on the off chance that the guy was still there, and there he was, sittin' on one of the stools at the coffee bar. he completes his story by telling me that he beat the guy within inches of his life, right there in the restaurant (this is some good dirt on a guy I suspected was just a quirky duck all this time, suddenly tagged woman beater).  he goes on to tell me that [Manson's] rationality stems from his religious father and grandfather who used to also beat the shit out of their wives to "keep 'em in line", which in return, Marv tells Manson that he'll die an old lonely man if he keeps that "truth" alive. he tells me that Manson got to do a couple days in jail for beating up his wife. he [Marv] simply got a slap on the wrist for almost killin' Manson 'cause he knew the cop that made the scene.  he goes on to tell me a couple more stories where he's actually pulled a gun on Manson for doing stupid neighbor shit.  one involving his [Marv] diabetes medication getting wet, being that he leaves his weekly ration open on the table below the kitchen window, turning the sprinklers on, forgetting that the window was open, destroying that weeks worth of meds. he says, that was his own fault, but going off his meds for a week, then going back on the next, made him sick as a dog. so he's trying to sleep on a Sunday afternoon, feeling like he's gonna die, and Manson decides to mow his lawn (20 minute job, at best, mowing a trailer plot, yet it takes Manson hours and hours to meticulously go over every inch, then another 2 hours with the leaf blower). he says he got so fed up listening to that damn lawn mower, so he gets out of bed and asks Manson nicely to please shut it down, explaining his sickness. (Manson complies with argument). he says he just nicely got to sleep  and hears the whir of the mower once again. "WTF?!",  he says, as he walks outside in his underwear with his double barrel shot gun,  breaks the barrel, and slowly loads two rounds while letting Manson know that he'd best shut that fuckin' mower off.... he tells me a couple more yard stories that involved Manson actually going to jail for destroying one of his garden hoses that happened to land on Manson's yard. the more I hear about this guy, the more I don't wanna hear, yet Marv spins a good dark tale (making me wonder how much is fabricated for story telling sake, versus how much is real?).

once again, my goofy neighbors hi-jack my journal