Bird Houses

Mike and I put his bird houses together this morning.

X-Mas?!?

Merry Christmas!!!

We've opened the presents!!

Mike got really cool stuff. Things that he asked for on his list to Santa. Jen picked me up a copy of Breaveheart, which I've been bitching about wanting to see for about 3 months now. I used to have a copy, but it vanished.

Currently Jen is in the kitchen making breakfast! It's gonna be yummy, and I'm starving.


Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas...

Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house cookies could be smelled, even by the mouse.

Merry Christmas!

From the mouth if babes...

Me: "It's funny, I love walnuts, just not in anything. I think it distracts from the taste of the nut.

Jen: "That makes sense I guess."

Mike from the living room: "Dad? Do walnuts taste like walls?"

Me: "Ummm... No?"

I've never tasted a wall before, I'm not sure if they taste like walnuts or not...

Blah Blah Blah

Long time no blog...

It's Thursday, I'm sitting on the couch staring at Jen. I've managed to put in almost a full week worth of work. I've put in 8 hours every day so far, though for the most part I've only work 2 or 3 hours each day. I have tomorrow off, but I have to work Saturday.

Once this week is done there is nothing left to do, except waiting for snow so I can plow. But I'm not sure I'm going to be plowing. Tim still hasn't gotten his second truck back. The mechanic that's working on it still hasn't finished. I guess he broke his hand or something.

Supposedly there is plow work in Ann Arbor for me, it a little better then driving to Dearborn to plow every time it snows. But not much.

That's about it for the blog front. Jen is listening to a comedy show on her Mac, it appears to be making her smile at least. I can't really hear it, just he laughing and clapping in the back ground.

James - 1, Van - 0

It took two diffrent wrenches, 4 sockets, a hammer, chisle, 5 drill bits, Cameron's drill and a lot of swear words. But that damn wheel came off.

Jen's breaks are done. All around. If it wasn't for that damn lug nut it would have taken less then 20 mins, rather then the 7 and 1/2 hours that it took.

Ah well, at least she can get out of the house again. Or rather she can stop moving while she's out of the house.

Whats the point?

It's been a shitty fucking week.

To start off with it's been bitter cold out side. Or rather, it's been really windy out side which translates into the same thing. Add to that the fact that I've some how managed to pick up the flu, or something like it. My head is stuffed up, my throat is sore, and I am dead ass tired from sun up to sun down. At least I'm not coughing and sneezing yet. Works been crappy, long fucking days every day this week. Going in early and coming how late. Spending the day out side on the dumb ass tractor in high winds freezing my ass off.

Supposed to work tomorrow, I don't want to but we can't afford for me not to. We'll barley make rent as it is. I hate having to work long hours at stupid jobs just to make ends meet. By the time I get home from work I'm too tried to want to do anything, which just turns me into an asshole. Jen is upset, Mike doesn't get to see me much. What a fucking waste of a life, some times I wonder why I bother at all. I have a $250,000 life insurance policy from Metro transport, which is payed in full until I'm 30 years old, after which I'll have to start making payments again. As long as it looks like an accidental death Jen and Mike would be set. Not that I plan on doing anything like that, but it makes you wonder. Not to mention the work coverage, if I managed to get hurt at work. It's like $15,000 per knuckle for a finger. I could live with 9 fingers. If I cut off the pinky on my right hand I could still type. I don't even use it. Except to hit the shift key.

Gotta get up at 6:00 tomorrow so I can get to Tim's house in enough time to pick up the tractor and make it to the Ghetto. Working in the ghetto on a Saturday, what a wonder way to spend your day. I suppose you could argue that Inkster is not the ghetto. But in my book any place that has it's own meth clinic and you can't leave a tractor over night in a construction zone because someone will steal it is the ghetto. They left 3 bags of fertilizer there last night, this morning they where gone. Gee wonder what it's going to get used for? Bet they aren't giving it to their lawns.

Wet and Cold...

It's rainy and wet outside, Jen is out at the bus stop with Mike. I am about to head out the door for Tim's. Not really much we can do in this weather but he wants me to come work on a truck. It has electrical issues. He also picked up a new trailer and it needs to be taken to a weigh station so we can get it plated. It's about 1/2 the weight of the other one which will make it nicer to haul around.

None of this is stuff that he couldn't do for him self, but he wants me to do it. Mostly he's just giving me hours so I don't find somewhere else to work. If he keeps me too busy to find a job I'll still be there in the spring. From the way he talks I gather that he really wants me to stick around. Yesterday he was talking about making me foreman again, with a raise. $16.00 to $18.00 per hour, depending on what I want and how well it works out. Of course that's only good if the pay checks show up.

...

Hope it rains tomorrow.

Yep, that's all I have to say.

It's the weekend!!!

Yippy.

I don't think I've blogged in a while, in fact I know that I haven't. My last one was on the 8th and it didn't really say anything. Jes and Liz's internet doesn't always work for me. Or rather the signal booster doesn't. I think we had the same problem when we lived in pleasant valley, which is why we quit using it. It's appears that it refuses to assign the Mac a IP address when returning from sleep mode. Once I have connected and put it to sleep I have to unplug the extender and let it reboot, while my MAC is awake. Not sure what this could be.

Anyway, on to other stuff.

Thursday was a long day, I didn't make it home from work until 6:30. I started the day at 5:30. I had to be to Tim's at 7:00 to get the guys and tractor and get to Beck Road. After dropping the tractor and Manuel off I headed over to Michigan Cat (On Novi Road by 10 mile.) to pick up a ,skid-steer and take it to Beck Rd. It was the biggest damn skid-steers I've ever seen. The cab was heated and it had a lot of power. We where out all day in the snow laying dirt. Once in a while a flurry would roll in. We managed to get all the dirt down by 4:45 and we headed back to Tim's. It was 5:30 before I got there. It took me a little under an hour to get home.

Friday was worse. I got to Tim's at 7:00 and had to wait around until 8:00 for everybody else. They where supposed to be there at 7:00 but where late. I headed up to Beck by my self to finish the job. It took me about 2 hours to knock down and rake out the rest of the dirt. Then I loaded up the tractor and took it to Inkster. Once I dropped it off Tim and I headed back to Beck to pick up the skid-steer and take it back. We where going to leave the trailer on Beck and swing by some place in Highland because he want to look at a used equipment trailer. On the way to Beck he got a call for the topsoil company saying they couldn't deliver on Saturday so if he wanted the dirt he needed to get it today. It was for Oxford, where ever the hell that is. So we had to take back the big skid-steer and get a smaller one then drive to Oxford, which is 10 miles east of Lake Orion. Once the trucks dumped we pushed the dirt off the road,, left the skid-steer and trailer in Oxford and came home. I think I made it to Tim's around 6:30, I didn't get home until 7:30.

Saturday I spent in Oxford putting down the dirt. I got the skid-steer stuck pretty good, and had to get another skid-steer over there to pull me out. Once the dirt was done we came home. Krystal wanted to drive so I let her. At a stop light in Auburn Hills, right in front of the palace, she rear ended a truck. There was no damage, the guy just laughed it off and drove away. We got back to Tim's around 5:00 and I headed home. Got here about 5:45.

Damn it's cold out there.

That's about all I have to say.

Icey Mornings.

Have to be in Detroit at 7:00am for work tomorrow. It's crappy because I'll have to get up at 5:00 just to make sure. If we get the snow and ice we are supposed to get it'll take me at least an hour to get there, probably longer. The dumb part is, I have to drive to Detroit, well Dearborn, to pick up the truck and tractor so I can drive back to Beck road. You know the Beck road that's less then half an hour from the house.

The bright side is that Tim went out and rent a skid steer to help spread the dirt. He dosen't think the tractor alone can do it fast enough. And, as I'm the only person in his employment other then him self that can run one I get to use it. It's got a door and heater, so I'll be toasty warm. If I drag my nomad with me I'll be toasty warm and diggin' on the music.

Tim keeps talking about me 'moving up the totem pole'. Evidently Karli the person he has as a Foreman just isn't work out for him. She doesn't show up on time, and he pulled up on the job a few times to catch her and the guys hanging on in the trucks not working. And she has a tendency to befriend the guys, rather then be the boss. You can't be both, at least not effectively, when the whole crew is Mexican. If I'm still working for him in the spring I'm sure he'll try to make me Foreman. In which case he'll have to give me a raise. I won't do it for 14.40 an hour, too much stress.

At least I managed to get 8 hours today and yesterday. I spent most of today under a truck attaching an new towing hitch and light plug. Tim swears up and down that the plug that was on it worked, we just had to move it. When I crawled under the truck there were NO wires running to it. If it worked it had to be by sheer will power because it sure as hell didn't have electricity.

This is the spot where the tree belongs:

Our Tree, still in it's box.

The tree out of the box.

Me, smiling by the almost done tree.

Finished, but undecorated.

The tree, finished in it's spot.

Mike, by the tree, finished.