Whew....

This weekend was a disaster for my tractor. I can't get into all the specifics because I am going to be taking some legal action against the dealership, but we can easily say that the tractor that I had is no longer a tractor but a pile of parts.

I was lucky to find a similar tractor on craigslist.com and after a lot of anger, yelling, feelings getting hurt, pain, suffering, and of course... $4,000 dollars.... we now own a much newer and perfectly running tractor.

It only took 24 hours to replace the old one, but it did take 2.5 weeks and many phone calls from the dealer for them to supposedly "find" a crack in the block after weeks of work. They deliver the tractor Wednesday, in pieces, "completely unrepairable" so they say. Funny... It went in for an oil change and a small starter issue. It started and ran, drove it up on the truck and it was fine, no oil spilling all over, or horrible noises. How odd is that? Hmmmmmm.......

I will update more after talking the the Attorney General's Office, John Deere's Corporate office, and the local news station. I am sure each of these groups will love to hear about how a local business took a running tractor from a 100% disabled veteran dying of cancer, kept it for weeks, raised the price to over twice the original cost, then, when the veteran refused to buy a new tractor, claimed that it was "totaled" and returned it weeks later, in pieces.

The good news is that I have a nicer tractor being delivered at the end of the week, in far better condition, and that I had the money to replace it. The bad news is that it was every dime I had in a slush fund, and that I am dangerously broke and in hoc to be here. Going after the dealer for the replacement cost of the tractor is the only option, so that is what I will do. Satisfaction will be mine.

In other news:


My brother is such a nice guy. He gave me a wicked nice treadmill that he no longer was able to keep in his apartment. They had not used it much, and it really has all the bells and whistles including counting calories burned, heart rate, and pulse. Total motorized system with incline... its sweet. He rented a moving van and we loaded it up and hauled it here to the house. It is now in my living room, across from the television. From now on my posts and TV watching will be sweat powered.

I do plan on going slowly, but the end result needs to be a loss of 100 pounds in just under 2 years. That is my goal, to be 100 pounds lighter in time for my daughter to be old enough to take rock climbing courses with me. She really wants to start as soon as she can, and she can't go alone. Time to get off my butt!

I have been a busy audio editor lately as well. I am actively working with my friend Phil who is warming up to start work on a full length audio book. Phil is an author with several novels published over the years. He has yet to write the big one that launches him to stardom, but quite frankly... it is only a matter of time. I am working with creating the audio versions of his books and articles to get more attention for him. It is going along nicely and as time allows, I may post examples of his work here for your enjoyment.

Dinner is almost ready and the rain just started pouring down, killing my internet connection. Figures that would be the case! I will post this as soon as my satcom signal comes back. Take care everyone, I am out Monday (as far as I know) so I will update later.

Life get's easier, but hotter!

We have had an unusual summer here in Upstate NY. It has been cool all through July and into August. We also had much more rain than we usually do which killed my garden, and made it miserable to plan vacations and such. Now that August is in full swing, the heat arrives. No one was ready for it. We were all getting used to and enjoying cool evenings and mild days, then this heat wave hits. It has been terrible the last week or so. Highs in the 9o's and humidity and heat indexes both in the 100's. I have been very good lately at avoiding the heat and dealing with it since I travel to the south every week where, as you would expect, it is brutally hot all the time. I even went out and got a straw fedora to wear in the sun (as a stereotypical fat white guy should have) and I really don't care much about what people think. The last sunburn I got on my poor shaved head, nearly turned black, and I can't let that happen again.

We had the last parade for my daughter on Saturday, and that went very well. I am glad to have gotten to know the kids and be able to be there and help them My transformation into a "bank geek" parent is complete. All I need now is the T-shirt. We are going to start working on fund raising for the Washington DC trip next year and I look forward to the fun that will bring.

I seemed to mostly resolve a spat I had with an old friend. He is going through a tough time right now that I understand all too well. It is hard dealing with issues in mid-life while the economic downturn here slaps you around. It felt good to see him again. For his privacy, I won't go into any detail, but I am glad we are talking, albeit on a sort of top level only basis. I would love to have deeper conversation at a more convenient time for both of us. I think, having gone through a similar crisis, that I might be able to offer some help, and I hope I can. It was hard when I had to go through my last crisis because I did it mostly on my own. I don't ever want to turn my back on someone going through a similar thing, unless it gets to a point where my own self preservation calls for it. No matter, I am glad we had a chance to reconnect and talk.

Yesterday my brother called me on the phone and asked from my help. I was wondering what I was going to do for the day when he calls on the phone and asks me to help him clean his carpets in his apartment. They were going to get a delivery of new furniture and need to clean everything up nice. I lugged myself down there in the heat, daughter in tow, and we steam cleaned his carpets and moved furniture around. The nice part was that after we were done, we got to steal a quick dip in the pool they have there. I was going to just bail out in the am go swimming with friends and hang out all day, but when the family calls and asks for help, we jump up and go. That is how we are. Pizza and a few laughs ensued shortly after and we were home by bedtime.

I got an email a short time ago from the boss, telling me that I do, indeed, have a load today, and my truck should be done from it's 30,000 mile service. I am glad I had taken the time to clean it through and through before the service, and now when I leave, the truck will be in great shape inside and out. That truck is my house 4 to 5 days a week, and just when you clean your house from top to bottom and everything is repaired, it feels very nice to be there when everything is done. It sure makes the trips more pleasant in a clean, well organized, and well running environment.

So, it is time to pack up and take off. Thank you all for reading again, I appreciate it.

RIP Les Paul

Les Paul has left us...

Les made everything possible for everyone alive today. There is nothing that we touch daily that he did not have a small hand in effecting. Everyone listens to music, everyone has heard an electric guitar, a recording, and has been inspired by music today. Les invented the way we hear music today. He played a huge role in the way we live our lives and now he is gone. There are few public figures that I will mourn more in my life than Les Paul. God Bless you Mr. Paul. I am greatful to you for everything you have done, and I promise to remember.

Tired!

Well it is Friday, I think. I have been up since Thursday night at about 6pm, only got 4 hours or so of sleep the night before. Wednesday night I only got about 4 hours of sleep as well, and that was interrupted. I feel pretty much like a zombie now. At least what I believe a zombie might feel like, minus the whole craving of brains thing.

Weee 4 day weekend! I have all day off today, Saturday, Sunday, and (since my truck is in the shop for service) Monday as well. Saturday looks like another day with the marching band and the last parade of the season.

I am glad my Live Journal setup is working, however, of you want to see all the links and the pictures on my blog you have to go to the blogspot address. Apparently there is no system in place to convert blogspots html to the "lj cut" stuff that LJ is using. At least you get the text, so that's something.

I have the house to myself now, as everyone leaves to do some shopping, I am left with a quiet house. I am going to unwind and take a short nap, then its back awake for the rest of the day so I can get back to normal.

Hope everyone is well.

Got a great load this week~! Talk to you all this weekend... Later~!

--
==================================================================
This mobile text message is brought to you by AT&T

Noteable Things

I spent some time last night with my great friend Phil. He is a talented author and I learned very quickly that he also has a talent for voice acting. I asked him to read me some reviews of movies that he had written, and some of the great articles he has on line. After a few of them, I said "Come sit here and read them!". So it started.


He is hilarious! I was really stunned that, for the most part, he was a one take guy, totally unflappable under stress, and completely able to add lib at the drop of a hat. I know I am going to have a lot more work with him in the future. It was way too much fun. As soon as I master the files we recorded, I will get permission to have them posted here for download.

I got turned on to this artist by a friend a while ago. Blotch is actually two artists working as a collaboration to create work under one name. The art is brilliant, the facial expressions are incredible, and I really enjoyed reading some of the stuff Blotch has put out. A new project called "Nordguard" is in the works. Apparently it is a "blog following the development artwork for Blotch's graphic novel trilogy" and it looks fantastic. I look forward to seeing the work done. Great art comes in all forms, give it a chance!

Speaking of great art...sometimes that art happens to be words.


I don't know who this person is.... but they are surely hilarious. There is some serious humor going on here and I can see this just getting funnier and funnier. I was surfing around blogspot, checking out some of the "newest" blogs that had been created. I was bored and needed something to talk about, so that is where I started.... Excellent reading if your in a weird place, you will end up in a weirder place. Great movie reviews, observations, and thoughts on life.

Finally there is this:


I don't know what else to say about this...

That is my random for the week, talk to you all later!

When it hurts to type...

It had to be done, and now everything hurts.

Years ago, we lost a garage. Every tool, every material, every screw, nut and bolt...got piled in a small storage area and left to die. Every time we needed to do anything in the house, even if it was just a 5 minute job, the time it took to find the things you needed for the 5 minute job was 2 hours. It was a mess. This is the pile, and as you can see....disaster.

The room is small, and the tools we really need are far less than what we used to have around. But like so many things in life, you live with what you have and make it work for you. So a few gallons of paint and a lot of bending over, the room was painted with drylok sealant paint, and cleaned out. Remember this small space had all this stuff just thrown in it for years.


So we started early, worked hard, everyone had a job to do. We sorted and pitched, hauled and lifted. The door is only 4 feet and some inches tall into this room, and so is the ceiling. I managed to smash my head on the roof and doorway about 5 times yesterday. My head still hurts.


When we were done the pile was gone. Anything that was not important was thrown out, and everything that was important was sorted and duly put in a place you could easily get to it.


The room, is much nicer now, and doing any repair work, project, or other work around here will be as easy as walking in (banging your head for old times sake) grabbing what you need and going to work.


Isn't that the way its supposed to be?

Back on the road again today, after a really nice weekend. Looks like the week is shaping out to be pretty nice. I will try t

--
==================================================================
This mobile text message is brought to you by AT&T

Technology = Fail

I love technology. It can be the best thing that ever happened if you use it correctly. If you become dependent on it, however, it can be your worst nightmare. Any of you out there who believe that our devices that we love so much are just things, and not living breathing beings, let me be the first to say that you are dead wrong.

My sister in law came over last week with a new version of my phone (pictured here) to show me. I really loved the fact that it had a sliding cover with a full keyboard. I have a difficult time with my phone (pictured here) because the touch screen is nice, but it is a bit touchy. I have a hard time texting the right letters when I am sending messages. I said "Wow this is really nice, I should get one of these when I am ready to upgrade.' That.... was a huge mistake.

I grabbed my phone to compare hers to mine. I touched the screen, nothing. I tapped it, nothing. I powered it on and off, nothing. I tried and tried to get my phone to work......nothing. It was dead.

Apparently, my phone "heard" me talk about upgrading it, got mad, and just stopped working completely. Worse than that, years and years of contact information for work and friends, were gone. There was no hope of retrieving it. I could not get the phone to open the menu for the address book, because there was no way to touch the screen and get the numbers to show up. I could not even write them down. I was screwed.

I got the phone replaced under warranty at no cost to me. That was good because the replacement cost is terrible. The bad news is that there was no way to get any data off the phone. I lost all my numbers and was really upset because some of those numbers I could not replace. Luckily, the most important contacts I have in other locations so I am not at a total loss.

The rest of the week was stressful in some aspects. Mom and Dad's finances now that they are on disability are not nearly as good as we had anticipated. There is a $3000 a month discrepancy that we are facing. Luckily we are in a position to be flexible enough to handle it right now. For a short while this week, we were panicked that we were not going to be able to make it. It seems now, however, we will. I can honestly say that I was freaked out about that.

Work was good, and the weekend is going to be short again. I am leaving out Monday to cover for someone on vacation. I am glad to have the job and the hours that I have right now, so you won't hear many complaints from me.

Today my daughter has a parade with the marching band. We are leaving in a little bit and won't be home until later in the evening. I am looking forward to some fun, rather than stress for a change.