If you write it, they will come

Is it still a blog if I go more than a week between posts? Less a web log and more a stale web site I suppose. I was busy is the excuse I'm going with this time.

So at work there are two fellows who report to me and they build the gear we sell. One of them is on vacation for two weeks, and one of them is on restricted duty cause he hurt his hand. And it was the end of the fiscal quarter and we were trying to make sure we had enough gear to meet the projected demand. Then a testing instrument (that I am responsible for maintaining) broke and we needed it to work again. So last week I put in a lot of hours.

And last Saturday was a big wedding and I needed to fish up the white silk vest I was making to wear with my morning coat. All that got done, button holes and buttons Saturday morning, and the wedding was lovely. You can see the vest in the picture.

Do over

If you get old enough, the same bad things happen over again.

So the other day I'm just about to back into the driveway, and I put the old Suburban into reverse and then it made a funny (not the laughing kind of funny mind you) KLUNK, zush zush zush sort of sound. It did not, however, go backwards. It just kind of sat there like a wild beast that had had its neck bitten by a lion and it was wondering whether to just die or kick the lion.

So the bad thing again part is that I needed to have the beast towed to a shop where mechanically inclined persons took it apart and made it better again. For $2507.

I suppose that's about 1/10 the cost of a new car or about 1/18 the cost of a new Suburban that seats eight and hauls all my crap.

But to offset the cost of fuel and my high caloric intake of the free snacks at work, I've tried biking to work. So far I've gone about one and a half times. Each round trip saves me about four bucks. There are problems.

1. The bike trip takes about 35 minutes - so I need to leave earlier.
2. My mountain bike (a "free" one I got with bonus points on my VISA card) is a little small for me and less comfortable than I'd like.
3. There are lots of cars with drivers that only take a passing interest in my feelings of safety.
4. I get sweaty and I'm in my work clothes. I need to carry a change of clothes.

I just need to suck it up I suppose.

So after picking up the Suburban, I was just going to go swimming, cause it was hot. Instead I noticed that the toilets were not draining, and that the bathtubs were filled about an inch with not very clear water... Yes Virginia, the main drain to the house was a main plug. And it was about 90 degrees. And I had not had dinner. And I was cranky.

I'll keep this brief.

The county sewer repair fellow, Luis, came out and after half an hour figured out that he couldn't really help me. It seems my house is missing a cleanout near the street. He was really nice.

This ultimately led to me digging a hole about 30 inches deep to get to the pipe connection where I could put in a pipe flushing thingy. It goes on the end of a garden hose and expands to fill the pipe then opens up to send pressurized water down the clogged pipe. That worked.

I went for a swim. Today was even hotter.

tschüs Mona

Mona headed home today. Her bags weighed in at 50.0 and 50.8 pounds and the nice lady didn't charge her $50 for the extra .8 pound. After a last coffee and an alles gut text message to her mom, we gave her hugs and we all shed a wee tear. We waved good bye as she went into the security area. Auf Wiedersehen Mona!

That was so fun lets do it again

You can take a peek at the photos here from last weekend's Renaissance Faire at Camp Richardson in South Lake Tahoe. We all had loads of fun.

That costume that I'm in took a while to make. It is very comfortable though, if I do say so myself.

We are off tomorrow to do it all again. Hope I see you there!

Post #420: Rambling Man (aka Wall of Text)

Well, I finally reached that pinnacle of success, 420 posts on my blog. It took a long time and I sure have covered a lot of ground. Over that time span a lot has happened to me and I've only reported the surface of it here. Sometimes I get it in my head that I ought to "tell all" but then I usually get a clue and remember that you, my gentle reader, probably don't care or actually want to hear my DEEPEST thoughts; they are mostly not that entertaining, just TMI. It seems sometimes that I have nothing to say because what happens to be happening is none of your business, no not even YOU.

But just let me say this.

When I started this blog I had a lot of stuff bottled up. In time I got through that. For a while there I was really down; I had fallen and I couldn't get up. I got over that too. It was, frankly, a very painful chapter. I wrote some really hurty poems. At this point I'm not sad enough to care enough to write poetry. I have better things to do, though it is fun to create a 'thought space'. Maybe I'll get inspired. Don't put off anything fun waiting though, OK?

In a small way, writing all of this blog to all of you helped me. It helped by focusing my thoughts. It didn't always help since sometimes I just dug a bigger hole, but mostly it helped. Thanks.

Next time I'll dredge up some witty thoughts.