Another update from the southern front...

What a weekend! They've really been running me ragged in the Macon area, and I needed a break. Friday after work, me and Deb met in Columbus to go to a friends house who is headed to Texas for Air National Guard training. We stayed until midnight, and after an hours drive home I found the largest stack of jobs yet waiting for me on the fax machine....oh, and some idiot had routed me out of my assigned management area. I was too late to get that fixed, so after 4 hours sleep, I headed off to try and get all of the jobs done. Here are the numbers...350 miles total, 8 jobs completed, 4 area codes covered, and done by 6 pm. I was quite proud, and wore slap out. I call home from Macon to see how Debs day went and find out we've got a dinner date with some friends that was made the week before...oh hell. Haul ass home, jump in the shower, and off we go again. I thought I could handle it, but at around midnight it was obvious that I couldn't. I was falling asleep on the gang, and I'm the one that is supposed to be throwing one-liners and smart assed comments. Arrive home, and joy of joys, no work waiting for my Sunday at all! I got up late Sunday morning, called the office and found that I had no jobs scheduled for today either. Now that was a relief, and all the more reason for us to head out again. After working 7 days a week for the past month, it was time for an adventure. So, Sunday afternoon, the girls safely in Florida with their big sister, me and Deb packed up and headed to Atlanta....Catching up with some more friends up there who showed us a great time and hospitality. We had a very enjoyable time.
I've started figuring out lately that it is probably a better thing to go see friends, and have a good time rather than think of reasons not too. I'm the king of begging out of that kind of thing, but every time we head off I have as good a time as anyone. No, the yard did not get mowed, and it was raining when we got home this afternoon so it won't happen anytime soon either. We don't have money to be doing anything extravagant, but because of good friends it really doesn't cost much. To hell with it, it was a fun weekend, so I'm not going to try and justify it!

The jobs for tomorrow are plentiful, but at least they are in the right area. Deb is napping and the girls made it back sun burnt but happy. I'm still broke as hell. I'll keep on keepin' on...........

A mom update.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but there hasn't been a lot to talk about. I've been working pretty much all the time, and that isn't very exciting to write about. We did manage to make our way to the Silver Dollar Raceway on Saturday night to watch a friend of ours race. Things didn't work out to well for him though...lost in the first round, bought back in, then lost again in the second. Thus is bracket racing.

We went to watch our friend Bobby play again Sunday night. It seems he is going to have a pretty steady monthly gig at the sports bar he's been playing at. As I said before, it is not my kind of music, but "We've got to support the band, man!" Besides, Deb likes the music, and Lord knows she tags along on a lot of my dumb stuff that she could care less about.

I missed school tonight because I got home to late to make it worth while. I'm only three tasks shy of being done though, so it really isn't that big a deal.

Should anything exciting happen, I'll check back in later in the week.

Tractor envy.

I bought my little John Deere and had to pull it around behind a Ford Ranger that just wasn't really enough truck to get the job done. So, I get a truck so big, that now the John Deere looks like a garden tractor behind it. Uncle Phil buys a 190xt Allis, which is a monster. It just so happens I've been passing one for sale for the past month between Ft. Valley and Macon. Now, I know this is a disjointed paragraph, but the question is, is one acre enough room to turn around and Allis 190?

Next quarter, and playing with the camera.

This is my last quarter in welding class...after about a year and a half, I'll now have a diploma in "Welding and Metal Joining Technologies", but, I've still got some G.I. Bill money left to collect.....so last night I signed up for Machine Tool class..in other words, machinist. I won't have enough G.I. Bill to get me to the end, but HOPE scholarship will pay the tuition all the way through, so what the heck. It is definitely something that is worth knowing how to do, especially with Pratt & Whittney down the road, and the new Heckler & Koch plant being built in Columbus. The instructor said right up front, "If you've got a part that needs to be made, we'll do it right here". Now he is speaking my language!

In other news, I'm always taking pictures to post on the various firearm websites that I frequent, so I thought it was about time I took out the book for my camera and started learning the little tricks that nobody ever uses. These pictures I'm posting are guns ya'll have already seen, but taken in full manual mode, manual focus, aperture priority. Lighting is still kicking my ass, so I did these outside...natural light is much easier to work with. I did touch these up a little with Photoshop, just to get rid of specs on my background. Anyone that can offer some photography criticism, let 'er rip. I'm open to suggestions.

 

Happy Birthday to Me!

You can see from the cake how old I am. Had a pretty good Birthday...took the afternoon off, played with Monk and Catelynn, mowed the yard, surfed the net, and caught the best damn rock show I've ever seen on VH1...100 best Hard Rock bands. Talked to all the kids...yeah, it was a fine day. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go to bed...I've got an hour of so of Birthday left you know.....

Lib or not?

I seen this on my homegirl Celeste's Journal and had to try it. It is pretty close considering there aren't that many questions to it.

Your Political Profile

Overall: 80% Conservative, 20% Liberal

Social Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Ethics: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

 How Liberal / Conservative Are You?

My helper.

As you can see, I had my helper with me Saturday. We got quite a bit accomplished, and the old shed is now empty except for the lawn equipment which is staying in there. I wasn't going to put this table in the new shed, but Monk was sure we needed a "dinner table" to eat on from time to time...then she decided we needed to try it out. So we had some ham and cheese sandwiches to make sure it would work. It did. I also have a pic here of our massive television that so far has only had cartoons played on it. That damn thing is ancient, but keeps on working.

Happy Mothers Day.

This is not something that I claim to be good at, so bear with me…

 

To my mom,

 

   Like everything else in life, folks tend to take certain things for granted, at least I do. For instance, I take if for granted that when visiting my parents, you will be woke up in the morning by my mom singing and playing the guitar, followed by the smell of something wonderful cooking for breakfast. I never thought to warn my wife about that the first time she slept there, and woke up to her looking at me as if to say, “What the hell is this all about?” While the highest rated would be cinnamon rolls, the rice and raisins rank as high on my list. It is a given that if it is past 9 p.m., and your looking for my mom, you’d better check the bedroom, because she is asleep….4:30 a.m. to get those dinner rolls rising comes awfully early you know. You would be hard pressed to get hungry at moms house.

   We did not have a lot of money when I was a kid. In fact, I think there were times when we didn’t have any at all. The thing is, at the time I really didn’t realize just how tight things were. My sister and I weren’t burdened with having to hear about any of these problems. This is probably one of the more important lessons I learned from both my parents…let kids worry about kid stuff, and not involve them in adult business. If they ever argued, it happened when we weren’t there. These days, mom doesn’t worry about much. She’ll be the first to tell you that all is in God’s hands, and she’ll trust in Him that all will work out.

   In some ways, my mom ruined me. When I was young, you didn’t take the “last one” of anything…that was dads. It wasn’t a big deal really, that’s just how it was. Now days, if one of my gang beat me to “the last one” (usually a desert that I really didn’t need anyway), instinctively I look at Deb, like, “How did you let that happen?” Doesn’t she know it is her job to protect the “last one” from the kids? I’m sure she probably thinks I’m quite insane.

   I’ve got nothing but love for my mom. I haven’t ever told her how much I appreciate all that she is done for me, so this is as good a time as ever…Thanks Mom.

Looks like I'm not working this weekend.

Well, it looks like I've got the weekend off. I dropped the hint yesterday that I was wondering when I was getting a day off. No jobs were posted for me by late last night, so I thought I had it made...then the phone rings this morning and it's a fax screaming in my ear...can't be good news. Yep, it's a job...wait, there is a note at the bottom..."James, please take care of this Monday, cust's local's not working. Thanks, Craig." We alrighty then...I'm in business.

Monk and I got power rigged up to the shed last night, though if an insurance man seen the way it is hooked up, he would probably croak. I need to get the proper breaker for the house panel, and we'll be set. I also got the cable hooked up so Monk was able to watch cartoon network with my grandaughter. a very dirty doll.

My corn and watermelons have sprouted, and the tomato plants look very healthy. We didn't get any rain this week, so I'd better water today.

Looks to be a great day to be alive.

1. What is your single biggest frustration right this minute?

Money, always.

2. What classic television show would you most like to see made into a modern-day movie?  I've yet to see one remade that didn't suck, so I wish they would leave well enough alone. What classic movie do you think you'd like to see remade? See above answer.

3. How many people in your family are war veterans?  Myself and Uncle Russell, who has since past on. Of those, how many have you actually talked to about their experiences in war? Uncle Russell said enough to me that I could tell he'd rather not get into it. Most folks don't ask me about it, unless it is technical stuff about certain weapons. I've got no problem talking about it, though do worry sometimes about coming off a bit "callous" about killing. But I will say this, if you ever come across someone who goes on and on about the "acts of war", he has probably never been in it.

4. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #51 from COURTENAYMPHELAN:  Who do you think is the best author in J-land for poetry?  My mom, mosie1944. How about for prose? See above answer.

5. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #52 from COURTENAYMPHELAN: If you haven't put your picture in your journal, would you consider doing so?  If you have, what made you do so? Hell, when your as good looking as me, why wouldn't you want to put a picture up? I just figure folks get a better "feel" for your journal if they know what you look like...thats how I am anyway.

6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #53 from Nyuknyukpik2:  What is your favorite black and white movie and why? Schindlers List, it is one of those that you don't even really notice that it is black and white, because the movie is so good.

Another one in the safe.

 

Well, I finally was able to catch my transfer guy in his store and picked up this little gem, a Hecker and Koch USP45 Compact. I have yet to shoot it, but can't hardly wait. Now my USP9 has a playmate. One of these days I'm going to get this camera figured out. This picture was taken with a home-made light tent (white sheet), using some big halogen outdoor lights to light it up. I took several, but still had to adjust the color for some reason. I think the halogen bulbs must through a hint of tint into the picture.

More welding pics, plus some others.

Well, I've got some more welding pictures in this album for Dad, but I also threw a few in there that might interest others. The first one is the killer, to bad it isn't focused very well. Chrystin did the self portrait of her and Monk...just two of the reasons I'm getting ulcers. There are far to many beautiful women in this family. And the worst part is, I'm past the point of having much control over any of them besides Monkey. Amber lives up north, so all I can do is worry about her. Celeste is moved out and in her own house. Chrystin at 19 has a job, and splits her time between here and her dads house...and her boyfriends. And Lany, well, I'm afraid I've lost that battle. Deb lets me act like I've got some control over her, though she is running the show. The baby in the second picture is Catelyn, Celestes baby. I guess it isn't a bad thing to be surrounded by beautiful girls.

Whistle while your work.....

This is more to keep folks from thinking I've given up on this than anything else. I started working Macon area last week, and it seems that the lady that runs the Macon office thinks I'm going to do 7 day work weeks. So far, she's winning. BUT...I am sort of "taking one for the team" because the Macon guys are swamped. I figure I owe the company a couple weekends, because the proof is farther down the page that I don't always bust my butt for them every day! It sort of sucks working over there because I don't know the area at all, and it is at least an hour and a half drive just to get to the first job. All I'm doing is service work and backing up their lead tech when he gets strung out, so it isn't hard work at all. Time is what really starts getting to me. With school two nights a week, and not getting home from Macon until 7 each night, I've not had a lot of time to do anything else....that, and since I'm on salary, I'm not getting any extra bucks for this crap.

I am still loving my XM radio...one of the best toys I've bought this year. My favorite talk show is Opie and Anthony on XM202. It starts at 7 am eastern, and I like it so much I've been hitting the road earlier just so I can catch the whole thing! They are both New Yorkers, but are more conservative leaning than lib. And, it is a comedy type show anyway. And most of the time they really deliver...it just blows away any other morning show I've ever heard. Even better than Johnny Dare and Murphy in Kansas City (I hear it's just Johnny Dare now...what happed to Murphy?) and WAY better than the syndicated John Boy and Billy, or Howard "dumb shit" Stern. I've laughed so hard at times I about had to pull over. It is a bit on the rough side, because since it is on XM they don't have to go by FCC guidelines.

I'm bitching about working weekends, but Deb has been doing it every since she started. As I write this, she still hasn't made it home for the night. We have still found the time to socialize a little bit. Went to friends for BBQ Friday night, and will probably go watch another friends band tonight if Chrystin is available to watch Monk (Lyndsay). Most of the music is a little old for my liking, but he purposely does some Neil Young in the set to keep my attention.

Oh, my tomatoes made it through the frost scare, as well as two big storms, and look to be healthy so far. Maybe this will be the year I get a good garden again.

I've got another HK pistol waiting to be picked up at the pawn shop down the street. I traded a Leupold scope for it from a guy on the net, and Dan the pawn shop broker was good enough to do the ATF transfer for me. Now I've just got to catch him at the store to pick it up. It has been there since last Thursday and I've yet to make it there before closing. It isn't going anywhere, but it's still driving me nuts. I'll post some pictures when I get it. It will be my second HK, a USP 45 compact, but I'm sure not the last. Heckler & Koch make some very nice weapons, but they don't come cheap.

All right, I'm typed out for now, and just got the word that Chrystin is available, so I gotta jump in the shower.