We Got Fall

Blogger was a bitch this morning, I tried three times to get this right, Blogger won.
Please start at the bottom photo. ............................our mess of fall [clic da pic]........................

..........................we share with all [clic da pic]................................

......................come play with us [clic da pic]............................

...............................look proud [clic da pic]........................

.................look deep [clic da pic]........................

Did Our Part

I used to just sit there and not be bothered with voting. Bic and I proudly went out last night and placed our vote in the machine, trusting it to correctly cast our vote. So many things I can't completly trust anymore. I expect a lot of lawyers to be sorting out a lot of problems this election year. They have to get some of these billions of dollars floating around, don't you think?


.

Something Like This

Most of what I'm going to do for my new best friend 2.2 miles up the road, will stem from this photo I found from Google search ..".elegant woodwork." The back wall will be glass cabinets and mirrors etc. I got 5 months, to create a man cave to beat the band.

Build Me A Bar On Watts Bar

Today I have to go to the end of the driveway, turn right [away from town] and travel 2.2 miles on a winding road to vist a beautiful waterfront home. This winter I've managed to get a great project from some friends at Sail-Away. A couple bought a 1.7 million dollar home and they were not completly satisfied with the basement walkout bar. They want full panel mahogany walls, arches, glass cabinets with mirrors, all the fixings of a fancy hotel bar, very fancy hotel bar. Money doesn't seem to be an issue at all and when I first met him I told him if he could wait till this winter and I finished up my boat work, I'd move all my tools in for the winter. 2.2 miles away! Well today I have to meet with him to set up accounts with any stores or suppliers that I want to work with. Oh joy!
This job is the main reason I broke down and got my shoulder fixed. I needed to make sure I was ready for this so I bailed out on another local boat job [can do it in spring] and did the doctor thing. My down time is just about over and I'm sure it'll show in my amount of time I have to blog. No doubt, I'll be posting pictures.

Oliver's W

Seeing as how this man was going to the movies with his son to see "W." Bic and I too ventured to see Oliver's view of our great little boy president. I'm sure Matt will have something witty and detailed about the movie on his blog. All I'll say is, two people in front of us walked out [they like George and McCain in these parts] at about halfway thru when you really realize this is a very unflattering portrayal of W. I personally loved the movie, Bic didn't care for it too much. Richard Dreyfus was excellent as Cheney. I think what bothered Bic most was the portrayal of Condi, she seemed to be like a little weaselly weasel, just listening intently, while cowering amongst the men. The worst part of the movie for me was the fact that at one point I actually felt bad for W. Oh I hated that feeling. Glad it didn't last long.

Days Gone By

My visit to Bagwine Ohio brought out quite a few stories from days gone by. One that got Matts attention was that Phrankie Bondo and Micky-t, go way back to the early 70's with tales of cabins and caves and redwoods. Here we are amoungst the woods that we always seemed to be in.
I'm feeling a little fuzzy from my visit north and this computer seems to be picking up those vibes and being very ornery. I'm gonna get out while I can. You all have a great weekend.

Road Trip...........Service

There's sunshine in the heart of me, My blood sings in the breeze;

The mountains are a part of me, I'm fellow to the trees.

My golden youth I'm squandering, Sun-libertine am I;

A-wandering, a-wandering, Untill the day I die.

A Note From The Doctor

As you can all imagine, I feel I had no choice, but to notify my doctor of my intentions before I venture to the head waters of the mighty Bagwine. He understood my concern, so this morning at an undisclosed location, I will meet with Dr. Ahmed Hussein Almond and discuss health issue risks before I immerse myself into the waters of Bagwine. I'll trust his judgment as to the long term effects of my journey north. With his notarized OK, I'll leave the security of my home and "go for it."

I'm Off To See The Wizard

Yes folks, I'm off to taste the waters of Bagwine later this week. I could no longer hold back the urge to drown myself in a literary waterfall of words and climb to the headwaters of the mighty Bagwine River. I need to experience first hand, the writing wizardry and wit of the man behind the curtain. ..........Let it Be!

First Chill

Sunday................ perfect..... to have the first fire of the winter season.

On Saturday afternoon knowing we were due to have a bit of a chill, come Sunday morning, I figured I'd get the fireplace ready for a fire. The only mishap was when the filter fell off the shop-vac and a cloud of dust enveloped the living room, Oh Yah, Bic was pleased!! We moved right into it and had it all revacummed and dusted within..............a few hours? j/k It really wasn't that bad.
So Sunday I got to watch MTP with a fire crackling in the foreground and hearing Colin Powell, voice a few words about the McCain/ Palin campaign. I must say, I really enjoyed this first fire morning.
The day was beautiful and I spent the afternoon putzing in the yard, with no presure to "have to" get anything done. Evening brought back the chill, so I gladly threw a little paper and kindling back on the dusty coals, and yes, there was enough to reignite that first fire of a Sunday morning into a Sunday evening fire.

See My Muscles

Well the shoulder surgery is behind me now and as I said before people told me I would wish I had done it earlier, they were right.
I can't remember how far back that Bic would say something to me about my arm while I was bitching about the pain in my shoulder. I'd be on the floor playing with the dog trying to reach out to steal her toy, of course it's an old game and she knows all my limits. Bic noticed her always manuvering to get to a certain side of me as I was laying down on my back playing with her. She also said something that I didn't understand the word so that only makes in as far as maybe my hair folicals. She had said it a few times over the months and still the brain of Mic [or is it all men] couldn't wrap the word into meaning for myself. The word she had been hinting to me about was atrophy, she had been saying it looks atrophy or something, I'm not sure because I never really let the word sink in. Well people let me tell you, yesterday after showing her my movement limits of my shoulder she said it again and this time my brain let it in and she explainned to me what she meant. I almost shit my pants when I flexed my muscle like little boys do all their lives to show off their big muscles and my left bicep just kinda....fell over. I could not hold that muscle tight and it litterally fell. So being the big little boy I am I gave it a huge effort of "see my muscle" and strained with all my might.......with my right hand I reached over and touched it with two fingers.....holy shit, it was putty, like melted butter.
There you have it, my body has been working to save my shoulder all this time and what it had to do was give up on my bicep. It never occured to me that in all that time my arm adapted to another way of operating, so it could avoid as much pain as possible. "Good arm, your a good good arm" I'll start taking real good care of you now OK?

Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Dollars

..............and a grain of sand..............


You know, there are so many things that slip between the lines when politicians talk, like cut taxes, or raise taxes. These lines without details can mean anything to anyone. Almost like standing on a beach and discussing how important it is to move "that "piece of sand, while pointing down the beach. Huh? What "piece" of sand. Well this $250,000 number that Barack is talking about with Joe who wants to be a plumber, and the rest of us is vague because a household that brings in $250,000 is in my book living high, but a small business bringing in $250,000 could be peanuts if the business has lots of costs, fuel, buildings, vehicles, and employees. Really $250,000 gross is a very small business. That business owner might only be taking $40,000 as his paycheck every year. Now what the "profits" of a business is in a year is another story, that would be in my mind where to get some extra money during these hard times. If a small business is bringing in large profits the typical capitalist way is to put all that money back into the business and "grow,grow,grow" more more want want now now. Call it what you want, a fine or penalty for those kinds of profits, won't kill the company, it will just make it grow a little slower. A business has to work really hard for that kind of money and profit and if their not working really hard for it, their probably cheating or stealing it somehow.These are just my observations, and who the hell am I?

It's Getting Better All The Time.........

Well, I must say I had no idea that my shoulder would be so well after such a short time after surgery. My mind had me stuffed into a sling with my wrist attached to my waist and no movement or the ability to work with my left arm. Wrong! Within four days I have about 98% of motion. Of course I'm on drugs and that helps get through the exercises during the day. I don't take anything from late in the afternoon so by bedtime there is a dull ache in the shoulder. I still have 98% but it only hurts a little bit and it's certainly not the same as before .

I haven't had this much motion in my left arm in years. yes, to everyone who said," your going to wish you did this a long time ago" I know I'm not done and I'll follow Docs orders, but no doubt by the end of next week I will be 100% fixed and ready to get on with beating up my body the way I always have! Ha!

What Do Economists Do All Day

Go Here and see how they really work their asses off to make sure our money is OK.
Keep it high, they get real nervous with low numbers.

I like this one too.

What State Are You In?

This was kinda fun. I got hit with Nebraska and Oklahoma in the beginning, they were tough. The most I was off was 81 miles for Nebraska and Oklahoma 28 miles. before I finished I got my average distance off, down to 8 miles. My total score was 90% average 8 miles off in 457 seconds.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/states_experiment_drag-drop_Intermed_State15s_500.html

Today is Luca's birthday, she is four years old. Got a big mother ham bone in the fridge for her tonight. Don't anybody dare tell me bones are not good for dogs, save it for your own house.

Tough Sleeping On Drugs.

Monday morning and I finally got somewhat of a good nights sleep. That first night back on friday sleeping in a recliner doped to the hilt, sleep was like a half a minute on, half a minute off watch at sea. It was kind of like sleep blended with running a marathon. The second day I continued on hydrocodn on the highest limit of the label, about two every four or so hours. Buzz Buzz Buzz all day long. happy day! That was day I talked to all you folks [see above]. That night I took the other pills [one] morphine tablet figuring to knock me out for the night. That didn't work, that night was a half hour on, half hour off, two hours awake half hour on etc. shift all night. Sunday morning I took two to make my therapy a little easier and then nothing all day with some crappy naps and then one pill at dinner to get me through my therapy. So I went to bed last night with no drugs. I managed a two a half hour straight shot but woke up with shoulder hurting quite a bit. Hung up for an hour and then got another two hour session. Did that three times and started this morning in pain so I dropped a couple so I can do therapy. To night I'll try to stop the drugs completely. Tough sleeping on drugs.

Post-Op

Man, I do tend to ramble and not even finish thoughts, huh? I hope to get better at this camera in your face thing. Oh, I did get all A's and B's in all the fun stuff of classes, drafting, blueprint reading and of course machine shop straight A's. Then a slew of C's to round it all off.

No Coffee...Not Even A Glass Of Water

Good morning for you maybe, but this is a tough one for me. Of course with an operation this afternoon [arrival time 12:15]I 'm not allowed to consume anything.
I may be grumpy this morning but I 'll certainly be groggy tonight. I hope you enjoy todays post as the real deal. It would be good to post live all the time, maybe sctratch out a little outline before shooting. Who knows, maybe I, could run for president. I could use "the worker guy platform" combined with "joe 6-pack" always have a power tool in my hand and a Southpaw Double Hopped Light in a can very close by.

U-Tube gave me the tube job last night, it didn't finish uploading my vlog. With DSL a 6 min video takes about 7 hours to upload. That discourages me!

The Conception

Hangin Out Front With A Southpaw And My Dog

This is what I told you about, our bench, in the park, that we built, in our front yard, .....no it's not done.
Look at the edging pieces I found [in front to left], I just might have enough to do the whole driveway edge. Not sure how I'll attach them so they stay. At the break in the short wall, I think I'll build the stones higher at the edges of the entrance to the bird bath Bic built and put a wide bench stone on top. I think that, they will compliment the future arbor. Got any other ideas? Let me know quickly, I'm in for surgery this friday. Ha!
It's been really tough this year not being able to bull through projects that this is the time of year for. I did manage to complete the gutters and covered all the gutters with gutter gaurd. This weekend I finished all the downspouts too. Now ready for some painting. Hopefully we'll have a mild winter where I can do some catch-up.

I pushed to finish this afternoon because were all getting tired of watching how slow this is going.
Finished cutting to fit, cleaned and blew off all leaves then brushed sand into all the joints. Let set for a while and watered it down. Doesn't look too bad. Next will be to rent a $11 .oo roller that I can put water in to make heavy at intervals and mash all those rocks as deep as I can into all that crushed stone and sand. Then the plan is to get some fine crushed stone and brush that into the seams. We're just winging it on this project, learn as we go.

Update: Had to add this for your reading pleasure.....

Salt of the Earth

A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. > > He can see from her nameplate that the teller's name is Patricia Whack. > > So he says, 'Ms Whack, I'd like to get a loan to buy a boat and go on a > long holiday.' > > Patti looks at the frog in disbelief and asks how much he wants to borrow. > > The frog says, '$30,000.' > > The teller asks his name and the frog says his name is Kermit Jagger and > that it's OK, he knows the bank manager. > > Patti explains that $30,000 is a substantial amount of money and that he > will need some collateral to secure the loan. She asks if he has anything > that he can use as collateral. > > The frog says, 'Sure, I have this,' and produces a tiny pink porcelain > elephant, about 2 cm tall, bright pink and perfectly formed. > > Very confused, Patti explains that she'll have to consult the manager and > disappears into a back office. > > She finds the manager and says, 'There's a frog called Kermit Jagger out > there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000. And he wants to > use this as collateral.' > > She holds up the tiny pink elephant and says, 'I mean, what the heck is > this?' > > So the manager looks back at her and says, 'It's a knick-knack, Patti > Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone.' >

Getting Closer......and I added some gore below!

I can't wait till I can put my park bench back. You can see it there looking all whacked on it's back by the tree. It's where Luca and I hang out at the end of the day, the only furniture she is allowed on, it's OUR bench. Sometimes if she is out on her own I'll find her hanging on the bench waiting for me.

If your interested, here's an animated preview of what my doc is going to do.....1st..agree, then click shoulder, then shoulder impingement surgery, then narrated............http://www.sportsmedicinedr.com/animation.htm

THIS ONE IS THE REAL THING

I found a site that has video of inside shoulder surgery...this is not for the faint of heart!..http://www.bjc-houston.com/en/cms/?64

.