Santa came last night

Sometimes we get what we want without expecting it. Birthdays and Christmas aside it is rare that we receive something we didn't even know we needed.

A ship took out the power lines to the island we live on some time yesterday afternoon. It was different seeing the island dark. The stars were amazingly bright in the ocean's darkness. Coleman lanterns, board games, and family reunion time was the order of the night. Hot dogs and smoked sausage filled our bellies. Preparing mountains of blankets and donning our warmest pajamas led us to slumber and be awakened finally by the return of the power returning to warm our water, cool our milk, and heat our reunited hearts.

I believe Santa came last night.

Palm blogging

I have been considering blogging from the comfort of my palm pilot (actually a Sony model but a rose is a rose by any other name) but the lack of a keyboard tends to slow things down. I got to thinking slowing down might be just what the doctor ordered. As you can tell this isn't a daily, weekly, or even a monthly endeavor. I blog when whimsey strikes and that is the way it shall remain. I prefer quality over quantity and slowing down might help my thoughts gel a bit while I am Graffiti-ing the words.

I have started a blog that is all about my Jeep because I didn't really want this one to get cluttered up with complaints about miniscule rust spots, cd players that won't play cd-r's and the like. Heck if I merged the two (and added in my super-secret work blog) maybe this would be considered a regularly updated blog. Alas it would be all over the board in that case.

If I Had a Boat

Just to reinforce that my wife knows what I need when I need it she bought me a replacement for a cd I lost somehwere. The first song sort of sums up my current mood. While it may seem like little more than whimsey there is the undercurrent of running away which is exactly what is in my head right now.

Lovett Lyle If I Had a Boat

If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

If I were Roy Rogers
I'd sure enough be single
I couldn't bring myself to marrying old Dale
It'd just be me and trigger
We'd go riding through them movies
Then we'd buy a boat and on the sea we'd sail

And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

The mystery masked man was smart
He got himself a Tonto
'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free
But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said kemo sabe
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea

And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

And if I were like lightning
I wouldn't need no sneakers
I'd come and go wherever I would please
And I'd scare 'em by the shade tree
And I'd scare 'em by the light pole
But I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea

And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

Comfortable and mine

Mom has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. 6-9 months to live on a realistic scale, possibly a year or more on the hopeful scale.

I've been wondering if it wouldn't be better to know about it at the last minute and just have to deal with the grief. As it is I have to deal with the imminent doom and then the sorrow of loss. I guess either way it is out of my hands and I like to try to tell myself that in any bad situation. It really is out of my hands but unlike my coarse exterior I don't always believe in what I try to tell myself and others.

A lot of people have mentioned that if I need anything they are there for me. While I do appreciate what they are trying to say very few people know me at all. My wife is likely the only one that knows I might disappear for a few days after she passes. It's my own personal way of dealing with loss of any major magnitude. I don't know why I do it but I've done it all my life. I remember being in Louisville Kentucky looking for a baseball bat. I lived nowhere near there and had travelled likely 500 or 1000 miles to get there, I really don't know. I just remember being on the interstate and seeing the exit and thinking, I need a louisville slugger from Louisville. I'll be honest, I don't even know where Louisville is other than in Kentucky somewhere. I remember riding the backroads of West Virginia on another ocassion. I don't remember where but my goal was to get so lost I would never find my way back to wherever I just came from that I'd have to live there and come up with some way to make a living there.

Both of those were minor losses.

I don't want to lose my mother. I've been a self-proclaimed "Momma's boy" since I could talk. I don't have any problem with that label and I laugh in the face of those that try to use it against me. I don't just laugh, I laugh with ernest (or is it earnest, I don't know, I'm not looking it up.) I guess I can tell myself it is not fair all day and night long but it is fair. She's smoked like a chimney for as long as I remember. It is her time. She has never been in great health. It's just a damned shame that she finally got her life in order; Finally got a job she did. The last time Mom worked was when I was just out of high school. I think I influenced that by complaining about how things were at home and then setting out to get a job even while I was in high school. After high school I was working 6 days a week in a sawmill even hitchiking to and from work some days just to get there. Maybe she saw that spark in my eye to have money to spend on stupid shit and she got the same fever.

I remember buying rollerskates from the JC Penney catalog with one of my first few real checks. I'll never forget them. I used them for at least 10 years. One time I was wearing them in a rink in.. I have no idea where... but a guy in the bathroom said, "Hey, at least the wheels aren't wooden." I kind of got a chuckle out of it because they were mine. I bought them with my own money and I kept them up flawlessly. Sure, the boots were scuffed and the laces weren't Nike or Adidas brand but I kept the bearings up and had good wheels put on them. They were comfortable and they were mine. I think that might be my driving force in life. Comfortable and mine.

I guess in a way that describes my mom. I've always been comfortable with my mom. It's been a comfortable relationship and she's always been mine.

I don't know where my rollerskates ever got to but I know where my mom is. Hopefully I don't lose track of her like I did the rollerskates.

Not Really music

U2 shouldn't be considered real music.

I'd rather listen to just about anything other than U2. I'm not sure why I hate them. I would prefer opera over U2 though, and that's as low as it gets.

Disturbed

I guess things are kind of crazy for me right now. Maybe I need to make some sort of change in my life, I'm not really sure what to do. Last week I had a dream that my oldest son and I were riding a jet ski and go cart and then when we got back home there was a pair of hands in a bowl. Turns out they were my youngest son's hands. There was no blood on the hands or on his stumps. I remember calling 911 because my wife was so dissheveled.

Last night I dreamt that I had to kill my oldest son with a pair of scissors. I think it was something about his body was bad (cancer or something) and we were going to have his brain put in another body. He took it like a champ, like he does most things. He didn't even cry. He died in my arms and then I woke up in a mad sweat. Right before that I killed a alligator/crocodile/snake I don't recall. I hit it with a bottle and knocked it out and then stabbed it with the scissors that I killed my son with.

Maybe it is the cold we're all dealing with. I've not taken anything for it so I can't blame the dreams on the drugs. I've not taken any drugs at all other than some tylenol this morning for a toothache. I wonder if the toothache was what was happening. I really don't know what is bringing on these very morbid dreams but I wish I could stop them.

I have been having my normal type of dreams as well. One of my happier dreams last night was that we needed to bend a piece of rebar into a double helix. It had us puzzled and I don't know if we ever did figure out how to do it. That's a normal dream for me. A puzzle that is partially work related and often math related.

Death should stay out of my dreams and reality.

I am Americana

I guess I'm different than most.

I don't have a mule and her name isn't Sal.
But I sing about her anyway.

I want to float down the mississippi with my brother tom Sawyer
I want to live a life of boyish danger.

I like the quiet banjo when it's percussive and sharp

Mumbling words or making up new ones is sometimes not only necessary but preferable.

When I grow up I wanna be an old woman.

Me and my other 3

Noah's belly button tag came off yesterday. We get the feeling he ripped it off but we don't know for sure. I had put him in his swing facing the kitchen window because he loves to look at sunlight through his mostly closed eyes. He did a little fussing and when we got to him it was off and he had cut his mouth with his razor sharp nails. Those little nails are deadly and it seems that even if you have just trimmed them they grow back immediately. I wonder if filing would help. The thing is his skin is so soft the nail file would take the skin as well.

Thor and I went fishing yesterday morning. He noted that it was the best time ever. We didn't catch anything or even get any bites that we know of it but it was quite a lot of fun. We lost a couple of lures and a little bit of line, but we gained a memory -- a memory that will be relived many times if I have any say in the matter.

My Midget Porn Star Name is Kron 'The Lion' Shizzle.
Take The Midget Porn Star Name Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Which Office Moron Are You?
Rum and Monkey: jamming your photocopier one tray at a time.

Polo shirts

Is there still someone out there wearing polo shirts? Maybe I'm oblivious to them or something but I wouldn't buy a polo shirt if it was the only thing on the rack. They could drop them to 50 cents each and I'd still not buy them. Yet it seems every store you look in, every promotional item available is in polo shirt style. And I don't see people wearing them.

Maybe I need to head down to the polo club or something.

Those little buttons

I wonder why they are called radio buttons. They don't look like anything I've ever seen on a radio.

Are there radios out there that look like these things?

Send me a link if you find one, eh?

Bread

I've come to hate the smell of bread. Yes, I have no idea why.

Happy anniversary to me!

It's my 6th anniversary today. I know I'll have at least 100 more if we both end up living that long. My marriage was actually well thought out. I knew I wanted to find a girl that was honest and down to earth. My search was successful and somehow I managed to talk her into marrying me. :) I don't regret any of it for a minute and I'd do it all over again the same way I did it the first time. A lot of the people that I work with leave their families at home while they work on jobs but I'm not that guy. I like going home to my family every night, even if I don't get to see them as much as I'd like to.

Honestly my life at this point is quite like a fairy tale. I have everything I could want and things are going so well it's almost scary.


Tori Amos - A Sort of Fairytale

On my way up north
Up on the ventura
I pulled back the hood
And I was talking to you
And I knew then it would be
A life long thing
But I didn’t know that we
We could break a silver lining

And I’m so sad Like a good book
I can’t put this Day back
A sorta fairytale With you
A sorta fairytale With you

Things you said that day
Up on the 101
The girl had come undone
I tried to downplay it
With a bet about us
You said that You’d take it
As long as I could
I could not erase it

And I’m so sad Like a good book
I can’t put this Day back
A sorta fairytale With you
A sorta fairytale With you

And I ride along side
And I rode along side You then
And I rode along side
Till you lost me there
In the open road
And I rode along side
Till the honey spread Itself so thin
For me to break your bread
For me to take your word
I had to steal it

And I’m so sad Like a good book
I can’t put this Day back
A sorta fairytale With you
A sorta fairytale With you

I could pick back up
Whenever I feel
Down new mexico way
Something about The open road
I knew that he was
Looking for some indian blood and
Find a little in you find a little
In me we may be
On this road but
We’re just Imposters In this country
So we go along and we said We’d fake it
Feel better with
Oliver stone Till i Almost smacked him -
Seemed right that night and
I don’t know what Takes hold
Out there in the Desert cold
These guys think they must
Try and just get over on us

And I’m so sad Like a good book
I can’t put this Day back
A sorta fairytale With you
A sorta fairytale With you

And I was ridin’ by Ridin’ along side
For a while till you lost me
And I was ridin’ by
Ridin’ along till you lost me
Till you lost Me in
The rear View
You lost me
I said
Way up north I took my day
All in all was a pretty nice Day
and I put the hood Right back where
You could taste heaven Perfectly
Feel out the summer breeze
Didn’t know when we’d be back
And I i don’t
Didn’t think We’d end up like
Like this

Piano moving

Yesterday afternoon the lady from the upstairs cafe next door (the name escapes me, as usual -- It's the one I call the hippie cafe) timidly asked if we could help her move a piano. Having nothing better to do than to complete my journey to complete inebriation we obliged. She needed an upright piano lifted about 6-8" on to their already diminuitive stage. Jeff and I just grabbed it, Mike was acting like a third wheel and we set it where they wanted it. They were enormously grateful and asked if we wanted paid in cash, beer or coffee. Jeff said he'd take a raincheck on the beer and I said I was fine. They thanked us again.

I asked when they'd be doing their first show because I really am looking forward to checking it out. They told me their schedule, broken down by days. Thursday and Saturdays will be performances of plays and the like, Mondays will be oral arts like poetry and the like, Tuesdays are auditions, Friday is dancing. The first performance will be the 1st week in June. Hopefully we'll be able to go to that.

I told them if they ever have anything they need done just let us know because we're usually just hanging out next door with little really going on. This was when I realized the proprietor was completely stoned. She asked me again if she could pay me in coffee and I declined. She then said, "No, it's real coffee." Mmm kay.

Ah, I remember the days fondly.

Tybee Island, from the inside looking around

There are pros and cons to living on an island. As one might be able to ascertain from my profile, I live on the lovely Tybee Island, Georgia. The beaches are nice, the food is excellent, and the atmosphere (except on holiday weekends) really cannot be beat. I've never lived near the ocean and had only seen it a few times before we moved here. I am not water people. I've never owned a boat and have no raging desire to do so. When I lived in Dreary Erie I liked to go down to the pier when nobody else was around (typically around 3 AM since I worked nights) and I'd sit on a bench and play my acousic guitar or just listen to the waves lap. It is a calming noise, as any "nature sounds" alarm clock will attest.

I thoroughly enjoy riding my bike on the island. Quite a lot of the island is set up with 2 lanes going both directions and I often take one of these for myself. There are plenty of side streets to ride that have low speed limits and people that are more likely than not to wave or at least smile. I've not eaten a single bad meal yet on the island. I'm a big fan of food so this point is a weighted one. I've eaten meals in just about every price range and enjoyed them all (well, I'm not counting the Arby's on the island, I never did really care for them.) The bars are decent and the drinks are plenty stiff and cold. The bars get crowded on the weekends but I'm not one for galavanting on the weekends with the tourists anyway so that's not a really big problem with me. There is a quaint grocery store on the island that reminds me of an A&P from the late 70's that was in my home town. Their prices are reasonable for a small town grocery store (Tybee's population is only about 3,500) and there are even multiple liquor stores to choose from.

There are some things I do not like about "Island living" moreso than Tybee itself. First of all, anywhere you have oceanfront property you are going to have overpriced housing when they get a view of the ocean. Overpriced housing begs for millionaires, of which we have quite a lot. Probably percentage-wise we have far more than our share. Sure, I get to see the new cars on the island before I can see them on the showroom floor, and I see more classics than Jay Leno. I get to see Vespa scooters and more $5,000+ bikes than you can shake a stick at. I get to talk to people who spend their weekends in real island locations, like Jamaica and the virgin islands. But with all this comes the millionaires. If you've ever met a millionaire you know one thing about them. They are assholes. It doesn't matter if they are in their house, in a restaurant, or stuck in traffic -- They are an asshole. They're quite certain the world revolves around them and their money and they think their millionare clout and money can buy them anything (although getting them to part with any fraction of a percentage of that stash is like taking cookies from the cookie monster ... oh wait they already did that, bad analogy....) Anyway, ask any restaurant server or bartender. I'm sure they'll back me up. Sometimes I'll be having a conversation and there's one of these types in the vicinity and they'll seem interested until someone directly looks at them or engages them in the conversation. At that point they will create an air of aloofness with an expression that clearly states our conversation isn't worthy of their time or consideration, even if you know they have been interested and engaged in it from the onset.

I'm not rich people. I make a very good wage and am proud to earn it. But I drive an older car that is [gasp] a 3 cylinder-gas saving-economy over luxury- metro. That's right, I said metro. I guess I just don't fit in with Land Rover/BMW/Mercedes people.

All I can say is that at least it isn't Hilton Head Island.

Sometimes a guy like me...

I don't know if this is normal or not.

Sometimes I like to write with a pencil. Typically I use a blue or black pen, although for my faxed stamp that is red and blue I use a green pen exclusively. I enjoy office supplies to a degree that can only be equated with Imelda Marcos' love of shoes. Yes, I've taken it to some sort of 8th deadly sin or something. I have sharpies in multiple colors, sizes, and styles, ball point pens, gel pens, highlighting pens, thick pens, thin pens, mechanical pencils, wooden pencils, rubber pencils -- you name it, I likely have at least one.

Today I felt like writing with a wooden "American" pencil.

Now I just need a really good pencil sharpener, like the kind we had in high school. I have one that is similar but it is suction mounted instead of bolted down. I find that makes a difference for some reason. I simply can't get used to electric sharpeners. They never seem to provide the tip I'm looking to get.

Office Depot is like a candy store to me. Well, let me amend that -- Office Depot (and any other office supply store) is to me like a candy store would be to a child that likes candy. [I'm not really fond of that candy stuff.] Even in grocery stores I stop to look at their pens, notebooks, and general office supply stuff for longer than I look at most anything else except perhaps the cuts of beef.

Beef and office supplies. Yeah, I could live on that.

GoDaddy can go away

The thing about GoDaddy is that anyone can buy a domain for whatever length of time for little or nothing. I recently read they surpassed network solutions as the top seller of domains. This is a first since network solutions has had the market cornered since the onset of the internet. Well, at the current rate of $8.95 per year (and less) people are scarfing up domains like they are candy after the breaking of a pinata. The problem with this is that most people aren't doing anything with these domains. They are parked and are offering the internet community absolutely nothing except the typical fake search page.

I came up with an idea on the way into work today to register a domain and build it to be a community for a community. I entered my desired domain name into my browser of choice this morning and came up with a connection timeout error. I was hoping for a "This website cannot be found" error but as such was not the case. My domain is owned by GoDaddy and is parked at one of their park servers. Thusly there is no content, only a contact at the whois database, which I'm certain is someone waiting for a monetary offer on this unused domain. I think this should be completely illegal. There is a limited quantity of names to go around on the internet, especially ones that make any sense at all. I feel if you are not actively developing or using a domain name you should not be allowed to own it.

So much for my big plans unless I can come up with another appropriate name.

Sick and Tired

I caught a chest cold last week and have had a lot of congestion and whatnot. As a result I have not been riding my bike at all, not even the commute to work. I can feel a difference in my body without the exercise and for some reason my muscles feel more tense than they do when I get my exercise in. My back even started hurting yesterday which is something that almost never happens. I'm planning on getting back into the bike commuting as early as tomorrow if all goes well. I'm still not completely over my cold but I have to get some activity going again.

2 decades and a half

Billy Null has been calling Jeff for the past couple of days so I called him back this morning to tell him 8:30 9:00 PM is not a time we are at work. He's going to call me tonight with his phat talk and I'll give him Jeff's cell phone number. He's in Arizona right now but I don't really have any idea what he's doing other than breaking up with some girl. His stories are always so convoluted I can't get much out of them. Maybe he'll make more sense after a few drinks tonight. That is, drinks for me, none for him. :P

My Commute

I have started doing a partial commute to work via bicycle. It actually costs me more money than if I were to drive but when I drive I don't get the benefits of 2 solid hours of exercise per day that commuting lets me have. I can't squeeze in 2 hours of exercise after a normal day of work because even if I started when I get home (about 6:20 PM) I wouldn't finish up until about 8:30 and that's way past my bedtime. Besides that, it doesn't leave much time for eating and drinking.

So my schedule is like this:
Commute days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Tuesday and Thursday I get to sleep in.

Bike days I get up at 3:30 AM, leave the house at 4:30 AM, leave parking garage at 5:00 AM and arrive at work around 6:00 AM. This gives me time to cool off and change clothes before I start working at 7:00 AM (which is really 6:30 AM but I haven't been marking my time like that. I need to start doing that but that's another topic altogether.) I get home at about 7:30 PM on bike days.

Rest days I sleep in until 5:00 AM and then leave the house at 6:00 AM to arrive at work about 6:40 AM. I arrive home at around 6:15 PM and really need to be heading to bed before 8 PM to get rested up for the next day.

Thus far I haven't lost any weight but my commute time on the bike is decreasing. My longest ride was 1 hour and 12 minutes and this morning I did the commute in 58 minutes with an average speed of over 15 miles per hour. Shaving off 14 minutes is quite an accomplishment for me, although that does only average out to just about one mile per hour difference. I'm hoping to get my average up to about 17-20 miles per hour. I think that would be much more realistic if I didn't weight 240 pounds and be carrying 30 pounds of bike and 20 pounds of clothes, tools, and general luggage but alas it is not to be.


Here is a google map representation of my commute, in case you're in town at 5-6 AM and want to say hello. :P

Leg 1, from the parking garage
(Satellite)
Leg 2, downtown
(Satellite)
Past the civic center and on to Georgia bike route 85
(Satellite)
On to route 80 and Dean Forest Road
(Satellite)
Dean forest road runs into route 21 then down Bonnybridge road to work
(Satellite)

Headway

I realized this past weekend that if birds are unable to make headway while flying it is not a good day to ride a bike. I ate more sand on a 5 mile ride than I think I've ever consumed and I wasn't even on the beach. The weather was nice but the wind was stymying. I did manage to get a 10 mile ride in on Sunday but traffic ended up getting me upset. I guess I need to stick to lower traffic areas. I also need to get my chain idler cleaned off (from the JB Weld that didn't work) and have it welded properly. I'm thinking I need to start storing my bike inside due to all of the rust that is accumulating on it as well. Maybe I'll just bathe it in grease. Nah, I already get all greasy every time I touch it from the 7 miles of chain.

Hurts so good?

The wife and I went to see John Cougar Mellencamp last night. Donovan was also performing. The show was at the Savannah Civic Center, which was easily the worst layout for a concert I've ever been to in my life. I felt like a grown up in a kindergarden desk. I'm not that big of a person. Yeah, I have wide shoulders and am 3 inches taller than the average american man but I'm not gargantuan to have felt that way in the fold up plastic seat.




We were in Mezzazine 14 Row P. Mezzazines 21-26 were closed off due to be behind the stage. From our vantage point we could make out that there were people on the stage but we certainly weren't picking out eye color or even sock color. Many people had binoculars. I find it rediculous that binoculars are required for a $45 seat. The most uncomfortable seat I've been in at that.

The sound was ok, and the songs were... well, it was John Cougar Mellencamp. I guess there are people that live and breathe that kind of music but we aren't those people. He started out with his song Small Town, seguewayed into Human Wheels, I saw you first, Minutes to Memories, Lonely ol' night, rain on the scarecrow, Walk tall, Paper in fire, some song I couldn't place from my spot in line for more beer, and then capped off his first set with the Authority song. Donovan joined him on stage at this point. My wife summed up the Donovan show best:

Donovan, if you didn't bring enough for the whole class...

We decided to cut the night short when Mellencamp came out for his encore. We didn't need to hear Jack & Diane that badly.

Something that sticks in my craw... Mellencamp's web site stated the show would start promptly at 8. Well, as with all musicians I know, Mellencamp lives in his own time zone or something because it was much closer to 8:30 before anything actually started. The civic center's web site implored eveyone to be in the doors by 6 PM and they didn't even open the doors to the concert hall until just shy of 7:30. People were just sitting around on stairs and of course going to the T-Shirt vendor ($30 a shirt, $22 for the greatest hits cd.)

Overall I give this concert 3.5/10. Mainly it was because of the venue and partially because I've never been head over heels of either of the performers but when you get a ticket it is a package deal.

Spring Fling

Spring arrived yesterday and it seems as though when winter left it took our colds with it. We felt great and the weather was more beautiful than we could have imagined. I did some skateboarding, rode 15 miles on my recumbent, and then did some more skateboarding. We topped the day off with a top notch dinner at The Dolphin Reef.

While I was riding my bike I saw another recumbent that looked exactly like mine. It was yellow, swb, uss... I can only imagine it was another actionbent because I don't know of any other makes that are very similar to the ab's. It was a true high point of my day. I ended up averaging 15mph for 15 miles. This was quite a feat for me since it's been several weeks since I've even been on the bike. I was quite proud and I'm sure the beautiful sunshine helped me through it. I stopped down at Jamie's bike shop and picked up some bearings for my skinny skateboard. She was quite shocked when I said I wanted bearings. Well... not really. She asked what size bearings and I replied "Skateboard." THAT was when she was shocked. :)

Even the weather is under the weather

We're still fighting our little cold like thing. Thor hasn't gotten it yet, much to my surprise. The weather has been quite rainy and they are calling for 100% chance of rain all day today. About the time I get home tonight should be high tide and with the all day rain I'm quite curious how well the ol' Metro floats. I guess I should have bought those paddles at Bass Pro Shop last weekend. A couple weeks ago they did put up new signs that said something along the lines of "High tide may cause water to go over road" or some such. Maybe I should throw an inflatible raft in the back of the car for just such an occasion.

Family gone but some things stay

The family cleared out this weekend and we're back to our nuclear trio. It seems as though someone brought something they could leave. I haven't decided yet but I think it is a virus. Both Keisha and I have had fever and very active mucous creation. It is possible it is just a sinus infection but either way there's not much we can do but wait until it goes through its course.

Desi's flight was delayed leaving Savannah so she missed her connecting flight and had to wait about 3 hours to get another flight into Harrisburg. For her trouble they bumped her up to first class and gave her $30 in food vouchers for lunch. I thought that seemed pretty darned fair.

I used some JB Weld on my bicycle where the nipple broke that holds the chain tubes. I let it sit for a couple days before removing the zip tie that was securing it but one little wreck by Desi and it all came undone. My next plan is to remove the JB Weld and take it to the auto body shop on the island and see if they can weld it on. I've said it before and I'll say it again right now. That bike chaps my ass. It would be one thing if it were a Wal~Mart cheapie but I paid a lot of money for that bike to be as much hassle as it has been. If I didn't enjoy riding it so much I'd really be put out by it. I think I've learned some valuable lessons from it so that's good. I know from now on I'm going to be buying my bikes at bike shops and not online. Even if I have to drive some distance to get to the bike shop at least they'll back it up with a warranty and somewhat regular checkups. My new issue of Bicycling magazine has the rundown of the new crop of bikes for the year (of which I think they cover all of 5 recumbents, mostly burleys) but anyway I was on their site this morning and found a pretty cool bike. Cost is a factor of course. http://www.challengebikes.com/html/index.php?taal=en I liked the fact that it is available with under seat steering, I just can't imaging getting used to over seat steering. It looks so "chopper" to me like that. I am thinking about changing out my largest front chainring to something that will allow a bit more gearing. I find that I run out of gears pretty quickly. I'm sure that will wait until later in the summer but it's something to consider anyway.

Cafe Loco

We went to Cafe Loco again last night. Wednesday night is wing night. Wings are one of the very few meat items I will eat that has bones in it and I do like their wings quite a lot. They have 10 different flavors and the deal is you buy a pitcher of beer ($7.50) and you get all you can eat wings for $6. It turns out to be a pretty good deal since last night I ate 30 wings and drank a pitcher of Pabst Blue Ribbon (it was a blue ribbon night!) for about $13.50, about $1.50 more than their 24 wing party pack.

There is one very big drawback to Cafe Loco. Their service would have to improve by leaps and bounds just to become mediocre. Waiting more than 30 minutes for a drink order or an entree is not only normal, it is expected. Last night I literally had to go find the waitress every time I wanted to order some wings. There is only 1 waitress but the place only seats about 75.

If the wings and wing deal were not so good I'm sure I'd not go back just because of the service.

Weekends

We had a great weekend. It was nice to have the family together. We spent some time on the beach, cooked out, ate supper at Cafe Loco last night, and just generally had a good time. I am quite worn out from it all and am due for some time to myself. Desi & Amaya will be here until Sunday and Rene, Nicholas, and Wendy are due here on Friday. After that it will be smooth sailing for a while until our next bout with visitors.

Teresa, our landlady, brought our electric bill yesterday. It was $150. I was astounded. We don't typically use the air conditioner and almost never use the heat. The only thing I can think is that the decrepid refrigerator that runs all the time is eating up the juice. I mentioned to Keisha that if we go out of town for a weekend we need to shut off our power at the breaker box to see if the pizza oven still works. I'm sure we're not paying for that because it must eat megawatts of power rather than kilowatts but still, it seemed terribly high. Even Jeff & Mike's electricity was over $100 and they've not even been there all month. The rate is high here, 8.2¢ per kilowatt hour, which is much higher than in Tennessee. I guess it is comparable to that in Pennsylvania but ah well, we'll just have to deal with it.

Let the visitors commence

Scott rolled in last night around 11 and will stay for a couple days. Desi and Amaya will arrive tomorrow at 11am and stay for a week and a half, Rene, Wendy, and Nick will come in next Friday and stay the weekend. Needless to say it's going to be a busy couple of weeks.

We ate at Cafe Loco last night for shits and giggles. They had a special on all you can eat wings and I'm still burping up their original recipe wings. The first batch of wings was mildly seasoned but every reorder grew in intensity. Typically by the time you get your 2nd or 3rd order your taste buds are accustomed (or should I say cooked off) but they obviously work their spices on a logarithmic scale. Excllent food though.

Urinal Science

When we arrived at this place of employment on the 14th of February there was a piece of gum in the urinal. It is still there. I am wondering exactly how long it will take to become one with the sewage system. Thus far it isn't showing any signs of wear even though I feel certain everyone uses it for target practice. Give a man something that shoots and he will invariably aim it for something, for better or worse. It's huMAN nature as it were.

I'll try to keep updating on the status of the gum. It appears to be juicy fruit color currently and is, of course, abc gum. We are supposed to have a cleaning person start at some time pretty soon but I know I wouldn't go digging in a urinal. Perhaps they will, perhaps they won't. We shall see.

Put the lime in the coconut...

Yesterday we took our friend Mike to get his rv/bus. It was a long trip and slow going but we made it through without much trouble. The Waffle House and Huddle House food wreaked havoc on us for quite some time but we made it through unscathed.

After we arrived home Mike made some Pina Coladas which were easily the best I've ever had. It's the essential island drink of course and I gave Thor his first sip. He very much enjoyed it and would have finished it off had we allowed him. Luckily, we curbed that quickly. :P

Back to the grind

Well I've returned to the ranks of the gainfully employed after a grand sweep of 2 months relaxing and moving. A couple solid weeks of that time I was a bona fide beach bum which was one of those things I needed to check off my list of things to do before I die. Now I'll need to work on hitting the lottery so I can finish off my list. I racked up about 150 miles on my bicycle which was not nearly enough but it will have to do for now. Hopefully work will remain slow for long enough for me to enjoy the pleasure of nice long bike rides every weekend.


We've moved to an island off the southern corner of Georgia that hasn't yet been taken over by commercialism. It's as near to heaven as I've seen. We took a nice tour on a charter that searches for dolphins and that was an immense amount of fun.