Long, Wet and Tiring...

That about describes my day.

But I'm home, Jen's about to hop in the bath, then we'll lay around and watch a movie.

That about sums it up.

I am not a mechanic

That said, lets move on. I spent today working on one of Tim's trucks. Now, I'll state for the record that I have a lot of respect for mechanics. I hate working on cars or trucks. It's just not something I like to do. This was a simple job, or should have been..

The truck, a 1992 ford F350 super cab needed a U-Joint. The drive shaft has 3. One of them was bad but he wasn't sure which one. Not knowing it had 3 Tim went out and bought two, figuring while we had it off we could just replace them both. I pulled the nuts off the rear side easy enough. They spun right off the U-bolt that holds the joint onto the gear box in the back. Then I moved up to the center mount and loosed the bolts there, giving myself some play in the shaft. That is where it all went to hell.

Once I had the center ones lose I went back to remove the U-bolt and pull the back shaft off. But of course the bolts where rusted solid. I tried to pound them out with a hammer. I tried getting a punch on them and hitting them. I even tried pounding on the drive shaft to see if that would work. Nothing I did would even get them to move. So Tim decided he would just torch them off.

Trip 1: In order to torch them off, you have to have a torch. He has the two tanks he needs, and they are both full. He also happens to have a torch head and tips. What he was lacking was hose. So we head up to Lowes. They don't carry them, but the guy at the store tells us about a welding supply place down the road. They have hose, 50ft for $40.00. Back to the house...

Torch the bolts off no problem, pull the drive shaft off. Try like hell the get the U-joints off, they won't budge.

Trip 2: Head over to the local mechanic to ask him what we can do. He says to just bring them in, he'll do it cheap. So we head back to the house, get the shaft and bring it in. It takes him 15 minutes. We go back to the house to put the shaft on. But wait, we wrecked the bolts.

Trip 3: Murray's auto parts is right down the road. Over we go the get the parts we need. We get the bolts and head back home. I use some vice grips to pull the rest of the torched bolts out of the shaft. Then try to put the new ones in. Whoops wrong size!

Trip 4: Back to the auto parts store. Get a bigger size bolt. These ones don't come with nuts. Buy some nuts. The guy in the store checks the bolt size on there sizer and hands us some nuts.

Back at the house I get everything put back together, and I go to run the nuts onto the bolts. It's all set and... The bolts are fine thread, the nuts course. GODDAMN FUCKING PEICE OF FORD SHIT!!!

Trip 5: At the hardware store we had to buy new bolts and nuts, they didn't have fine thread nuts. Once we're back at the house I got it finished.

All in all I spent a little over 7 hours working on it, at 14.40 an hour that comes to 100.87 dollar + parts. The mechanic on the corner could have done the whole job in under an hour and it would only have costed about 50 bucks + parts.

Lesson learned, I hope.

---

Edited by: Jennifer Davey

I am a pansy...

Yep, it's true!!

Blarrg

7:00. I was at work right before 8:00.

We loaded up the trucks and headed to a couple of job sites. I ended
up working less then 10 minutes from Tim's house. He left me there with
two guys to run some blankets out. By 1:00 we were done, and being as the
other job had no dirt that was it for the day.

On the way back to the house I swung by Beck road. Tim is thinking
about quoting a job there and wanted me to take a look at it. If he
gets the job there it'll be at least another week of work before
winter. Also, it's pretty damn close to the house. I'm hoping he
gets it.

When I got home Jen wasn't here, so I took a quick shower and laid
down on the couch for a quick nap. When Jen got home we hung out
until Cam showed up and Mike got home.

Cam sprung for Chinese food, so we are all very full. I had a slight
tragedy during dinner. I had just filled my second plate full of
pepper steak, extra spicy, when Mike asked for more Gatorade. When I
reached for the Gatorade I knocked my water over. I managed to fill my
plate to the rim with water, ruining my dinner. Luckily I had a bunch
more in the box. I am over full. So, a great big THANK YOU to Cam for
the yummy food.

On a side note, for those of you that have my 'work phone' number. I
have to give the phone back tomorrow. I'll be getting a different
one, but by tomorrow morning I won't be able to answer the one I have
anymore.

FOOD

Last night for dinner Jen made bbq pork spare ribs, spicy mustard potatoes and home made stuffing. It was about 8:00 by the time it was all done, but it was yummy. And filling, I think I ate about 3/4 pounds of ribs.

Currently she is making some sort of chicken, I didn't get a good look at it before it when into the oven, but I'm hungry, but it smells good. I think she is making pasta with it too.

Should be yummy. She's a very good cook, especially when she is just winging it.

Stealin' the neighbors net.

When we got back from the store getting stuff for dinner Comcast was here to do a disconnect. We are not net-less as well as cable-less. We can pirate the neighbors net for some time to come. But if we don't keep the bandwidth down I'm sure at some point he'll notice. Depending on who it is. If we are picking up Mike next door, who is a techy, he'll pick it up fast. If it's the people on the other side we'll be safe, they seem a little tech neive.

Ah well, hope we get some cash rollin' in.

Way too full

Woke up this morning to the smell of food cooking.

Jen was in bed and asleep by 10:00 last night, and out of bed by 6:00
this morning. She decided to make breakfast at about 7:30. So that is
how I woke up. She made homemade drop biscuits, fried potatoes with
sausage in them. Along with scrambled ham and cheese omelets.

Everything was super yummy, as it normally is when she's cooking. It
was a mighty breakfast worthy of a king, too bad we didn't have one
here to eat it. I think I may have to go back to sleep for 5 years to
sleep off the last three days.

I have it on good authority that she's going to be making brownies.
If ever anybody doubts why I married her, this should be reason
enough. Though there are many, many more reasons.

Easiest $7.20 I've ever made.

It was a long grueling day at the office...

Mike slept in until about 8:30, Yeay tryptophan! So that was about when I got up to. After Jen and I 'stalled' getting out of bed. We fed Mike some raisin toast , then he and I played Baulder's Gate II. At about 9:00 we stopped playing and I made Jen and I some left overs. About two bites into my plate I got the call for work I was expecting. They where at 96 and 23, they'd be on site soon. I was too meet them somewhere between 4th street and 6th street in Brighton. So, I finished my breakfast, got up, got dressed said my good byes and left. I got there 2 minuets before they did.

The job was at the corner of 6th and Madison. Kalri, Tim's acting forman, had a check list from the expected about what needed to be done. The job ended up being 5 shovels of dirt spread out. After walking around for about 5 minuets she came to this conclusion. Then she had to figure out how to get the dirt there. They had a stock pile at the tracks on Main Street.

I was gracious enough to let them toss 10 shovels of dirt into the back of the blue truck. And I drove it back to the site. (Less then a mile both ways). Then I sat in the truck with the heat on while they tossed the dirt out, spread it, put down seed and fert. The swept out the truck. From to point that I left the house, until I made it home was less then 1/2 an hour. For the use of the truck I was given $3.00 to pay for gas. I also managed to pick up my pay check while I was out there.

There is a second job running, one I could have gone to. But it was in West Bloomfield, it is a 40 minutes drive from Brighton. They are only working until 1:00 or maybe 2:00. So by the time I made it out there, not getting payed drive time, I would have got 2 or 3 hours in. Then I'd have to drive home. It didn't seem worth it to me.

TURKEY DAY!!!

We headed over about 3:00, taking our time because we didn't want the
fruit & pudding cake Jen made to fall over. As we walked through the
door you could smell the duck and turkey roasting in the oven. Jess
and Liz showed up a little bit later with Veggie trays and Cheesy
Potatoes.

Once we where all gathered we sat down at the table and began to
gorge ourselves. The Turkey and Duck where awesome. As were the
cheesy Potatoes. Everything was very yummy, but I really liked the
stuffing. I'm not much of a stuffing person, preferring potato to
them. But Jen had made them homemade with cornbread, and I think
they rocked. I had two heaping spoons full with my turkey and
potatoes. All smothered in gravy. Mmmm... gravy.

After dinner we all sat around and hung out for a bit, watching Mike
playing with the Rubix Cube Jess and Liz got for him. Then we divided
up the left overs and headed home. After a quick game of Baulder's
Gate: Dark Alliance II we put Mike to bed. Jen and I were in bed
about 30 seconds later. I think it might have taken Jen a full 10
minutes to fall asleep. For once she was sleeping before me.

Stupid Drive - 0, Karma - 1

Stupid Driver - 0, Karma - 1
On the way home from work today I saw karma extract justice. I was driving in the center lane on 94 by 275 in front of me was a white car, escort or something of the type. In front of the escort was a semi truck. In the left lane there was a pickup next to me, and a white BMW in front of him. Apparently the BMW was in a hurry, as the traffic was bumper to bumper, he decided to swerve into the center lane and pass the guy in front of him. I guess he didn't see the escort next to him, as he whipped into the center lane the Escort was forces across the right lane and onto the shoulder. Not stopping there the BMW then sped up until it was right on the but of the semi in front of him, and zipped back into the left lane, cutting off the car that was previously in front of him. The one he wanted to pass.

I am going to assume that the semi driver was watching in the mirror. As soon as the BMW was next to him he (the semi) swerved into the left lane, apparently to miss a non-existant piece of debris. The BMW was not only forced out of the lane, but he was force into the wide medium. Hitting the slick grass at approximately 70 mile and hour he spun out and ended up facing the wrong way in bumper deep muddy water. I'm sure he had to call a tow truck, I am equally sure that the impact of the water set off his air back, he stopped almost dead in his tracks when he hit the water.

Watch the news, I bet it'll be on there.

Twilight Zone

Today was just a weird day.

I drove to Monroe so I could be out on the job at 7:00 to start spreading dirt before the guys got there. The job site is just a little bit closer to the house then Tim's is. But in a different direction. To compensate for having to take my person vehicle to the job site he gave me $20 for gas. Which I promptly put into the gas tank.

I got there at about 10 after 7:00 and started the tractor. Had to let it warm up and grease it. Weird part 1: I have been running construction equipment for 7 year, in that time I have never had a diesel engine start up in the cold on the first crank. Also I have never had one take grease on every fitting. The tractor did both.

After letting it run for about 15 minuets to warm up I hopped on and started working for real. My nomad blasting in my ears. Music makes the day go so much faster. Worked till about 4:30 then headed home. I was so far ahead of the crew that Tim let me leave early. I have to be back at 7 am but that's not bad.

Strange part 2: I hit the 94/23 interchange at 5:15 and there was no traffic. So much so I made it home by 5:30. I breezed down 23 with no trouble. Made it to the round abouts and breezed through them with only one spot of trouble, I'll go over that in a bit. Rolled into the drive way and headed into the twilight zone.

The house was clean, and I mean clean. The kitchen and bathroom was scrubbed. The living room cleaned up. The laundry mostly folded and put away. Jen was working on it as I came through the door. After taking a shower I assisted with the little bit of laundry that we have left. A big thanks to Liz for helping out.

On to the ranting and raving.

1. The speed limit in construction zones is 60, unless there are workers present then it is 45. Unless the normal speed limit is slower. Today we had a woman come blowing through our zone at about 55. The speed limit is 25. I was on her side of the road with the tractor, on the other side of the road a head of me was the inspector in his truck, in front of him on my side of the road was our work truck then on the other side past that was a garbage trucks. Got it? Basically she had to zig zag through parked cars on the side of the road that where not quite far enough apart. Yet she did it at 55mph.

2. Do you know the meaning of YIELD? Because evidently people in Brighton don't. When I went through to round about I saw about 6 people come to complete stops at the yield signs, even though there was nobody in the round about. The lady next to me had the nerve to shoot me a dirty look because I just kept going, not even slowing down past what I needed to make the turn. No traffic, no stopping.

IT'S A YIELD SIGN BITCH, KEEP GOING.

Rock Paper Scissors

Mike and I just played 2 games of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

They play it really weird theses days. You have to move and bounce around and stuff.

It's strange.

Have you ever felt a witches nipple?

Today was cold, now that I got that out of the way.

I spent most of my work day on the tractor running top soil from the pile, up the road a mile and a half to where the guys are working. Doing the math, working out how long it takes me to drive the distance, I figure the tractor goes at max 4 miles per hour. With a full bucket it goes maybe 2 1/2.

That doesn't sound to bad, but conceder. It was 40 out, with a slight breeze. Then add the 4 mile an hour wind to it and what you have is cold. It doesn't have anything even remotely like a cab. You are exposed to the elements. With my carharts, two pairs of gloves, boots and socks I was still freezing my ass off.

I need to be out at the job site at 7:00 am tomorrow to spread more dirt. As opposed to meeting at Tim's house then driving out there.

And now my day is over, I'm home. Jen is cooking dinner for us, and it smells good. I'm starving. Mike is sitting next to me, talking about giving dogs Eskimo kisses.

Have you ever felt a witches nipple?

Today was cold, now that I got that out of the way.

I spent most of my work day on the tractor running top soil from the pile, up the road a mile and a half to where the guys are working. Doing the math, working out how long it takes me to drive the distance, I figure the tractor goes at max 4 miles per hour. With a full bucket it goes maybe 2 1/2.

That doesn't sound to bad, but conceder. It was 40 out, with a slight breeze. Then add the 4 mile an hour wind to it and what you have is cold. It doesn't have anything even remotely like a cab. You are exposed to the elements. With my carharts, two pairs of gloves, boots and socks I was still freezing my ass off.

I need to be out at the job site at 7:00 am tomorrow to spread more dirt. As opposed to meeting at Tim's house then driving out there.

And now my day is over, I'm home. Jen is cooking dinner for us, and it smells good. I'm starving. Mike is sitting next to me, talking about giving dogs Eskimo kisses.

Damn it's muddy out there.

Just got home, and cleaned from the second day of work. Blah Blah Blah. We where mostly playing in the mud all day. We finished the job we where on early, and instead of going to another job we just came home. Think I made it home at 3:30. We decided that second job would be way too muddy to even attempt. Which is good I guess.

No work till Monday. Well, there is work if I want to go in. But I don't have to. He has a couple of trucks that need work done on them, and I can go do it if I want. U-Joints, Thermostat, vacuum lines and things of that nature.

Other then his brand new truck, and Larry's new truck his entire fleet of truck are made up of 1985 Ford F250s with 351 Windsors in them. Which means they are all like driving (or working on) the Great Pumpkin. Yippy!!! (I need a scanner so I can put a picture of the pumpkin on line.)

I neither proof read, or spell checked this cause I'm just too damn lazy.

Also, if'n anybody out there knows a mechanic that needs a little extra cash, he has a truck that needs the engine replace. More to the point, he has a truck that they pulled the engine out of, and put a new one in. But the new one is just sitting in there, nothing is attached, it's not even mounted. Just hanging out under the hood. So if you can fix it, and need the money, let me know. I can do maintenance but I'll be damned if I'll swap out an entire engine. I've done it twice in my life, and that was 3 times too many.

Unconscious

There is a red mark over my left eye where the tree branch smacked me in the face last night. My brain feels like it is two sizes larger then my skull, it is throbbing in beat with the furnace in the background. For some reason I am having difficulties staying awake. I slept most of last night, we went to bed around 11 and I fell asleep around 1:30. It was 7:30 in the morning when Jen woke me up to say bye to Mike, after he was on the bus Jen and I went back to bed and watched a movie. I was asleep again right after it ended. Didn't get back out of bed until 3:30.

Jen had a gift card to some place and we where going to go to lunch, but that's screwed up cause I didn't wake up. I wanted to hang out today but couldn't. Even now as I sit on the couch and type this my brain is telling me to go back to sleep. My eyes glaze over with every throb of my brain. I wonder if the branch gave me a concussion or if I'm just exhausted or something.

I don't know, but the side of my face hurts as well as my brain. I'll be getting Mike off the bus in a few minuets then cooking some dinner. I hope I can survive the night.

Started my new job today...

It went a little like this.

Show up at the job site at 7:30 wait till 8 when the rest of them show up.
Tim gets 4 guy started at this site, we get in the truck with 4 more guys and drive to a different site. We drop them off, head over to MTEC and rent a trencher. We take the trencher to site 3, drop it off, head over to site 4. At site 4 we pick up a tractor and take it back to MTEC, then goto site 2 to pick up another tractor. After a quick stop at site 1 to check up on them we head over to site 3 and drop off the tractor, run the trencher for about an hour, load it up on the trailer and take it to Tim's house, which is between site 3 and 2. We drop the trailer, head back to get the guys from site 2, then drop me off at the van over on site 1.

Got all that?

In short, for a 9 hour work day I did about 1 1/2 hours of work. And he sent me home with a nextel so he can call me tomorrow. He dosn't know if we'll work, on account of the rain.

Run down:
9 hours at 14.40 per hour: $129
40 miles at 19 GPM: 2.1 Gallons consumed.
2.1 Gallons at 2.25 per gallon: $4.72
$129.00 - 4.72 = $124.28

Back On...

Powers back on, furnace is going full force. Fish tank filters are purring happily. You can hear the distant hum of the play station on it's rack. The low wirrl of the hard drives in the macs doing their things.

I didn't get super cold last night, but then I spent 90% of it under two blankets next to my wife and cat. Jen is like a furnace when she sleeps. Now that the power is back on I have to live up to my promise of cleaning the house. Once the kitchen floor warms up adequately.

Last night while the power was out I broke down (at Jen's insistence) and called my brother in law, and my uncle Tim looking for work. Both of which I was hesitant to do. Chris isn't working, at least not enough to support another employee. As for Uncle Tim, he has work for me if I want to drive to Detroit for it. Which in it's self would be fine, it's at least 14.00 an hour, and I'm sure there will be 60 hour work weeks. The problem is whether or not I'll get paid in a timely fashion, and if we can survive until the first paycheck. That's a lot of gas money to shell out. I have to call him back today between 3 and 5. He also offered me a winter job plowing snow. That has it's ups and downs.

According to him the plowing job would be for 20.00 an hour. But out of that I have to pay my gas. So really it'll be like 15.00 an hour. The up side to it is, he'll give me the truck to take home, he pays the insurance and gives me a phone. I'll be able to plow on the side if I want. But again, it's plowing so it's sporadic work. You only plow when it snows, and then you don't get to decide when. If it snow you go, even at 2am.

Battery has been running at 0% for at least 5 mins now. Kind of strange.

Slowly it dies.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Craig

Santa Clause is Coming to Town

Jen and I watched Santa Clause is Coming to Town last night, and we realized that now a days he would have been lynched before he ever got to be famous.


This strange young man, in his late teens or early twenties come strolling into a town he's never been to before. A stranger to all the people there he sets up shop right in the center of town. The children are given free toys if they just 'sit on his lap and give him a kiss'. Then they are instructed not to tell the authorities about it. Later he tells them that they should leave their doors and window unlocked so he can sneak into their houses while people are asleep.

Back in 1970 when this show came out that was acceptable. He probably could have gotten away with it. But now, with paranoid parents and uptight cops he would have gotten tossed into jail before his first toy left the sac.

Go see it: Brighton Fire Department.

We just got back from the Brighton Fire Department for Mike's second go see it.

They took us on a tour of the trucks and let the kids go through the cabs. As well as going over some fire safety. At the end all the kids got coloring books and badges.

It was fun an informative. Mike says he enjoyed it too.

Tired and Sick...

I think Jen and I fell asleep about 10:30 last night while watching the 30th anniversary of M*A*S*H. I was bone tired by then. We where up all night watching season 11 the night before, so we didn't make it to sleep until 9am or so. Then around noon the jackass land lord decided to come over and clean the yard. Using a leaf blower right out side the window. So I was up at noon.

Jen got up sometime during the night, I'm not sure when. I remember her leaving, and normally when she gets up like that I get up and force her to go back to bed. But last night I didn't get up until she came back to ask about food. I fell right back asleep as soon as she left the room.

It's now 7am, I feel like throwing up. In fact the second Mike and Jen head out side I think I will do just that. My eye lids are drooping, even after 8 hours of sleep I'm still wiped out. Today is not going to be a good day.

This is a picture of my wife with mash for a head. Let this be a lesson to you. If you have an obsession it will one day go to your head. And then it will be too late.

Weekend in Review

Where to start...

Friday: Mike didn't have school. After spending the day with him watching movies and playing Baulders Gate Jen, Mike and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get some pans for the baking. The it was off to Meijers to get some food to bake. She decided to make Cheese cake and Chocolate cake.

When we got home from Meijers she made chicken parmesan for dinner. Once Mike was in bed she started the baking process. I never knew what went into cheese cake. The graham cracker crust had to be hand ground, the cream cheese mixed. Then it was time to place them in the oven. After the hour bake time they came out of the oven, the cheese cake was over the top of the pan. Never having made one before Jen decided to cut the top off of it. She then proceeded to make the chocolate cake, and another cheese cake. To cool over night.

Saturday: After a morning of watching School House Rock and Harry Potter with Mike we decided to wake Jen, who had been up all night baking. Upon waking I proceeded to cook sausage and biscuits for breakfast/lunch for us. They were yummy if I do say so my self. After breakfast Jen started decorating the cakes for Big Mike's birthday party. Around 5 we all headed over to Jess and Liz's place for the party, cakes in hand. For dinner we had KFC. The party went well, the cheese cakes where a hit. Everybody left full.

After that we came home. Cam came over and we convinced Jen to head out to Carol's party. We had planned on only staying an hour or so, we where mostly going to see Alan and Jen. We have been trying to get together with them from some time, but as they live in Lansing it usually turns out bad. They where in Howell and wanted to get together but we had the B-day thing. We ended up staying at the party until 2:30ish. We had a few drinks, and some laughs. Jen played twister on Cameron, and hit on a slutty looking, drunk tinker bell a lot.

We came home, passed out in bed and ended our Saturday.

Sunday: Waking up, we dragged our selves out of bed about 3ish. Went out to get Mike. After coming home we had pizza for dinner, watched Star Wars Ep II, put Mike to bed and waited for Cam to come over. Once he got here to do laundry we hung out for a bit, watched Mortal Kombat then went to bed. I think I passed out around 2:00. Jen stayed up the whole night reading a book, trying to get her reading in while her eyes worked. Sunday was patch switching day.

Happy Birthday

Mike!!