Monday Madness

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Well, I finally got the back door painted. The outside isn’t trimmed out yet, but the door itself is painted.

I really couldn’t trim it out, because that would require using my air nailer. That requires compressed air. My air compressor’s start solenoid burned up while I was trying to figure out why the sprayer wasn’t working. Did I mention that I ended up painting the door by brush and roller? I need to invest in a name brand compressor, since I have already put as much into replacement solenoids as the compressor cost in the first place. You get what you pay for, every time.

Now all I have left is … well, there’s a lot left. One thing about owning a house – the maintenance, upgrades and changes never end. I guess the next thing I should tackle is that pesky valley leak on the roof. Seems a pigeon has had a bit of an identity crisis and built a dam in one of the valleys, and that has managed to back up water from our infrequent rains to leak into the garage wall; this wouldn’t be too bad except the garage is drywalled, so in order to fix the whole thing I need to tear off some drywall, trace the location, evict the pigeon, super caulk the leak, dry out the inside of the wall, then put fresh sheet rock up. Oh, and on the ceiling. I love sheet rocking the ceiling. It’s always an adventure. Maybe I should take this time to go ahead and paint the interior garage walls while I’m at it. Wait, that means I’d have to get a new spray gun too.

Darn, it looks like I have to make a run to Harbor Freight.

I love that store.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Wear Red on Fridays

Go here.

Order a shirt (or two, or five) and Wear Red on Fridays - Support Your Troops!

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Random Memory #2,473

I used to work as the Registrar for a small Business College that has since been absorbed and merged out of existence. One of the requirements for the Paralegal Associates Degree program was that the applicant (student) needed to provide a letter of reference from a lawyer, legal firm, or private counselor.

One student brought in her letter during her first term of classes. Before I filed the letter in the student’s folder, I read through it.

Wow.

The letter of reference, signed by the lawyer, was pretty standard, as far as the wording went. What was less than standard was the accuracy of the speeling. In three paragraphs extolling the studint’s abilitys, goles, and dreems, there were at least five mispellings.

In each paragraph.

Since I was in a good mood, I figured I wood call John Doe, Attorney at Law.

Thank you for calling the offices of John Doe, Attorney At Law. We are sorry, no one is available to answer your call directly. Please leave your name, a number we can reach you at, and a brief message. Your call will be returned within one working day. Thank you. Beep.

Hi, Mr. Doe, this is Cary Cartter. I am the registrar at (name of defunct business college). If you could give me a call back at 602-555-1212, extension xxx, I’d like to talk to you about (name of student). Thank you!

About an hour later, my phone rang:

Thank you for calling (name of defunct business college), this is Cary. How may I help you?

Hi, Cary, this is John Doe. You left a message regarding (student) – is everything in order?

Hello, Mr. Doe. The letter itself is in order; I was just wondering - are you aware that there are quite a few spelling errors in this letter?

What do you mean?

For example, the word “reference” in the first sentence is spelled with an "a" and there are several more misspellings of that nature – would you like to do a rewrite before this is filed in the student’s permanent file?

Who the h*** do you think you are? Why are questioning the g**d*** spelling in that letter? Do you know who the f*** I am? Just because –

I do apologize, sir, I just assumed that a prominent attorney, such as yourself, would rather have a correctly spelled letter of reference under their letterhead, especially for a permanent entry. Since it offends you that I would ask you about it, I do apologize. Good bye.

A few minutes later, the President of the school called me into his office. I took the letter with me, knowing exactly what the conversation was going to be about.

J: So, Cary, ticking off lawyers now?

C: Yes, I am, Jeff. It’s great sport.

J: Do you have the letter?

C: Here you go.

He looked over it, and I could see the smirk starting on his lips before he even finished the first line.

J: You called him?

C: Yes, and asked if he wouldn’t like to do a rewrite.

J: He got upset?

C: Started cussing, actually, but I cut that off as fast as I could and ended the conversation.

J: He says you hung up on him.

C: If by “hung up on him” he means that I apologized and said good bye, yes I did.

J: Well, he apparently doesn’t care about his image. File it.

C: Yes, sir.

I made a mental note of the student’s name, a copy of the letter to frame and hang in my office, and went about my business.

Three months later the student’s academic abilities were such that she was given the option of retaking some classes or leaving the college. I had a chance to talk to her before she left. I asked her about the letter of reference, and she told me that he had just signed it, she was actually the one who wrote it while she was working in his office part time.

I didn’t say another word. I couldn’t, I was suppressing so much laughter.

Thursday - Day Before Wear Red Day

Well, it looks like I may have survived another week.

First - in case you haven't - join in the Baby Pool fun - WIN BLOGMAD CREDITS - link is on the left.

Second - be sure to Wear Red on Friday - that's tomorrow, in case you may have lost track of a day or two (don't laugh - I've done that!).

Third - well, there is no third, but every list whould have at least three items on it to be properly called a list.

I have small-group Bible study tonight. Should be interesting. Usually is. We've been working through the God's Friends series and everyone is really enjoying it. I'm even learning a thing or two here and there.

That's all I've got for now, so let me close with my usual litany of plugs:

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Sleepless in Glendale

The off-shoot of not getting enough sleep is, of course, the dragging feeling that you experience about two hours into your work day.

(I am writing this at work, on break; I will e-mail it to myself and then post it tonight. Or tomorrow morning, if I get up early enough. Hah! That was a joke, son, you’re supposed to laugh right there…)

Even the Nectar of the Gods, the Elixir of Youth, good old C*ca C*ola, can’t seem to perk me up right now. Maybe I should go out in the shop and use the table saw without a guard – that usually gets the blood pumping pretty quick. At least, it gets the brain juices flowing, which is what I really need, since my job is mostly staring at a computer screen and printing reams of paper for the shop.

I'm kidding - I wouldn't run a saw without a guard!

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Baby Pool!

Update:

As of Wednesday, December 6th, at approximately 2:00 p.m., TMBWitW was dilated 1cm.

That is all...

Get in now, while the getting is good! Winner will recieve BlogMad credits! Click the link at the top of the left side, or here for all the juicy details.

I woke up before the alarm this morning, and it's not the first time. I've been doing a lot of that lately. I think I have too much rolling though my mind - the little girl on the way, being a new Dad when I am nearly forty-z*%*( years old (hmm - looks like there is static on this line...), the job situation, learning new things - maybe I am trying to internalize all this, and it's keeping my mind from relaxing completely.

Maybe I'm worrying too much? Maybe I'm not trusting God to take care of these things? Sometimes, it's difficult, as a human, to just let go of issues and let the Counselor take all the stress. This is something we need to learn, of we are to grow as Christians. Naturally, since it is an essential step toward growth, it is the very step that we will resist the most. Kind of like the initial step of complete faith to move us into a personal relationship with the Lord and Savior.

Maybe I shouldn't be philosophizing at four o'clock in the morning.

I'm going to go surf Blogmad now, and drum up some more interest in the pool...

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Driving me Crazy - VIII

I think I have it figured out.

When the white sign says "Speed Limit 40" you are allowed to travel at a speed between 50 and 55 miles per hour, unless you have a jacked up four wheel drive, in which case you can do 60.

Where the signs indicate you are in a commercial/industrial area, and the speed limit is 25, then you can travel at about 45 mph, unless you drive a catering truck, when you are allowed to drive between 45 and 50.

If you have an import that has been modified, even by only changing the exhaust to one of those radically cool tubes that make it sound like your car had too many baked beans for lunch, then not only do the speed limits not apply to you; you don’t even need to obey other traffic control devices, such as traffic lights, stop signs, and the ever-interfering "Right Lane Must Turn Right" signs. In fact, please use the center turn lane as your personal passing lane, since you have such a cool-sounding car.

Last night, on the way home from church, we passed the scene of a fatal accident. The driver of an eastbound car didn’t see the person pushing the shopping cart across the busiest street in town, at night, with no overhead lighting, when the person was wearing dark clothes and was crossing mid-block. TMBWitW and I immediately started praying – that the driver would not be too severely traumatized by the event. The driver wasn’t doing anything wrong; they were just driving down the road. The person who got hit, however, besides jay-walking, was ignoring every single common sense rule about crossing a street in the United States of America.

Probably because they learned how to cross the street in a country where it is expected that pedestrians will become traffic cones at any second.

I drove a truck for a while, cross country. Every where I went, it was the same story – it is only very rarely that you will be driving with people who understand the basic tenet of faith involved in driving: I follow the rules, you follow the rules, and no one gets hurt because we both know how the other should negotiate a section of road.

It’s this tenet of faith that allows you to continue driving through the intersection when another driver is approaching at a right angle; we know they have a stop sign, they know they have a stop sign, and no one gets hurt because we both know that they will come to a complete stop before proceeding.

When that basic tenet of faith is broken, either by another driver or a pedestrian, then someone gets hurt. Last night, a pedestrian was killed because they did not use common sense or observe the traffic laws of this state. Last night, a driver was traumatized because a pedestrian stepped out in front of them. Last night, the basic tenet of faith was broken, and someone got hurt.

Every day, the basic tenet is broken by someone who feels the speed limit sign doesn’t apply to them, that the rules of safe lane changes don’t apply to them, that the traffic control devices don’t apply to them.

If you ever drive behind me, know that I will be obeying the speed limit, my turn signals work, and I am keeping a safe distance behind the car ahead. If you need to get somewhere faster than I am traveling, you will need to go around me, because I am not speeding up. If I am keeping you from getting somewhere by a certain time, then you need to rethink your travel plans and leave a little earlier. If I suddenly signal and dive for the right curb, you would do well to do the same – there is probably an emergency vehicle approaching.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Two Days Late

Go here.

Order a shirt (or two, or five) and Wear Red on Fridays - Support Your Troops!

I got into too many events on Friday - didn't even get to blog. On the other hand, I did get to see "Flags of Our Fathers" - about the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima and the aftermath for the men who raised the flag in the iconic Joe Rosenthal picture.

I'm not going to spoil it, but it was very good. At one point, a four-star general made clear his feelings about Indians (Ira Hayes, a Pima indian, was one of the men in the photograph) and I yelled at the screen. I called the general an SOB, out very loud. There weren't a lot of people in the theatre at the time, since it was the first showing on the first day of release, at a theatre that not a lot of people frequent at 11:30 on a Friday morning. The ones that were, however, accepted my apology and two of them, former Marines themselves, said they felt the same way.

Yesterday (Saturday), I spent most of the morning with the husband of one of my first wife's daughters. (Wow, that was a clumsy sentence. I'll call the daughter C and her husband M, that will be much easier. Let me try this again...)

Yesterday (Saturday), I spent most of the morning with M, C's husband. He plays guitar for praise and worship at their church, and we sat down and jammed for about three or four hours. When you are having that much fun, you tend to lose track of time. Then, it was off to Costco and then P&W rehearsal for my church.

This morning I picked up dog poop and pulled weeds. I'll be in church this evening, at the regular service time. Guess who found out last night that he would be doing special music? I'll be doing "Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns again. Hey, short notice, you get a repeat performance.

I hope you all are having or have had a wonderful and blessed weekend.

God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and get in on the Baby Pool!

Blogger Beta

I'm trying, I really am, to figure out this "Beta" thingy going on. I've converted to Beta, and I have been working with my test blog (you didn't think I was going to screw up my live blog, did you?) and I just can't get some things to work - like the blogrolls. Without those, this becomes a very boring community, where nothing can be shared.

Any help?

God bless you all!

Baby Pool!

OK, get in on this already!

Follow the link at the top of the left column - the pool is still small, because there are lots of dates left!

Tuesday Troubles

Why are you posting, Cary? Did something happen at work?

Yes, something happened at work.

Friday, we were scheduled to have a new air compressor wired in. You know, cut off power to the building, the power company comes in, does it's thing, and power is restored; and they all lived happily ever after.

Except the electrician decided that Friday was a bad day to play with electricity. So, he didn't show up. Everyone else did, which would have worked out quite well, since the shop shuts down at lunch time on Fridays and they all go home. No power? No problem! No one was there to be interrupted, anyway!

The hook up was rescheduled.

For today.

Between 9 and 11, which is really convenient for everyone except those who depend on power for their jobs. Like, the designers, who's computers are useless without excited electrons.

You wimp, I remember back in the day we could draw up the cabinets by hand, and the shop would build them no problem.

You wacko, I remember back in the day that could happen because the people building the cabinets were trained to read the papers and could actually communicate in the language they were written in!

I digress...

So, I head back to work at 11, and ready or not they promised we could punch in at 11. We'll see.

I pray God's blessings on each and every one of you, even if you don't have the same political beliefs that I do.

Sorry, I Forgot

My apologies to all the Navy types out there - especially Gawfer and Seaspook.

Happy Birthday, a bit late.

231 years, October 13th.

And, a free pass from any Marine/Navy digs for at least one week. No, really, I promise.











































Yut, yut, Semper Fi, Ooh-Rah, devildogs!

Driving Me Crazy - VII

Today, boys and girls, we learn what to do in the event an emergency vehicle with it's light sna sirens comes towards our vehicle. Please note that these steps are assuming that you are driving on the right.

Step 1 - Make sure you can safely execute a lane change, signal, and move as far to the right as safely possible.

Step 2 - Stop your vehicle, and watch the emergency vehicle's movements, as they may need to go where you are stopped, in which case you need to move your vehicle.

Pretty simple, yes?

Please notice that I said nothing at all about continuing on your oblivious way, blocking the emergency vehicle's progress, nor did I mention stopping in the middle of the road with no warning or signals whatsoever so others around you have to take evasive action in order to avoid your vehicle. And I certainly didn't say to use the emergency vehicle as a quick way through the traffic and lights ahead of you.

Can you tell I want to find a place where most people know how to drive, instead of just the fifteen or twenty percent of us here in the Valley of the Sun?

God bless you all, and please drive safely.

It's Not Friday - It's Wear Red On Friday!

Go here.

Order a shirt (or two, or five) and Wear Red on Fridays - Support Your Troops!

I know you're dying to know - I'm wearing Rolling Thunder again today. That is just the coolest name for a shirt, ever. According to information at the ordering point, Jarhead John himself came up with that name. What a marketing coup.

Anyway - God Bless You All. Even you - hiding behind your religion - get out from behind it and get into a relationship with Christ. You'll be glad you did.

Just Working

I’ve been busy, with work mostly, and I don’t get to read my blog comments and my normal blog circuit nearly as often as I would like to.

Quick note – turns out Mary can see into the future.

Haven’t had much response to the Baby Contest – looks like the picking’s are going to be easy. I’ll have to start hitting the traffic sites more often, and get some competition brewing. (Hey, gawfer – I’m still waiting on a certain transfer of credits to secure your date and time – are you still wanting that one?)

Internet access at work has been severely curtailed - I can't access the blogs from my desk anymore, and there are only so many times you can play Minesweeper (Expert - 343 seconds). I may have to bring some of my PC games in to keep me occupied. Or, I could read – I’ve been working on a series of WWII histories, some reference level, some fictionalized accounts. Very interesting.

This last weekend I finally put the border up in the baby’s room. The guy who did the estimating of how much border was needed was off by seven feet. He’s the same guy who estimated the amount of gravel needed for the backyard. He’s going to have his figures double-checked from now on.

How have you been doing? Staying out of trouble?

I hope God continues to bless you and your family. Have a great week!

Disclaimer: This blessing was given in the hopes that God would, indeed, bless you and your family. It is the prayer of the person issuing this blessing that you are able to understand that a blessing is meant to do good for the one being blessed. If the receiver of the blessing does not believe in blessings, tough noogies. You got blessed anyway. Deal with it. In the meantime, figure out why your life is so mean spirited that you have to be upset that someone would wish you well in their own way. Could it be that perhaps there is a God, and since you have been insisting on no interference from this God, that the good things in life have been passing you by? Perhaps you should rethink your position.

So, A Chick Walks Into A Bar...

...doesn't get any full names, and claims that she has it on good authority that our boys are bad.

I could reminisce about many a sea story told by Marines less scrupulous than myself .. ok, me, too ... in order to score a date with the hot chick. Geez, people, let's give the Marines a little bit of credit, OK? They do screen the potential guards pretty thoroughly, physically and psychologically, before posting them in a sensitive position. Here's a hint: if they are bragging in a bar, then it probably didn't happen.

It's Friday - Again!

Have you gotten your Red Shirt yet?

No?

Fifty lashes with a wet noodle! Then go here and order yours, TODAY!

God bless you all, have a wonderful weekend!

End of Baseball Season

This baseball season has been one to bring a lot of changes to the Diamondbacks.

This was the last year for the purple, teal, black, and gold; next season will be “Sedona Red” and tan. Louis Gonzalez, the Goodwill ambassador for the team, and the last original member of the World Series team, is leaving, after a sound business decision to not pick up his option year. Sound business, but not sound from a fan’s standpoint – Gonzo has always been a steady and reliable player, and is a catalyst for the team in their relations with the communities of the Salt River Valley.

And Thom Brennaman, the voice of the Diamondbacks, is leaving – to join his father, Marty, in the broadcast booth for the Cincinnati Reds.

I grew up listening to the Reds on WLW 700, listening to Marty’s masterful play-by-play commentary, so when Thom was picked as the voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks, I was really looking forward to the radio broadcasts. I was not disappointed.

I’m going to miss these two players in the Diamondbacks organization, but I have confidence that with the extra budget room the pitching staff will be improved, to give Brandon Webb some much-needed help in the starting rotation. After all, he can’t do it all himself.

Now that the post-season is here, I can concentrate on the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Talledega is next, and promises to be the fastest traffic jam in the Chase. One thing is for sure when Talledega is the next race: the standings will change. Maybe we’ll see another charge like Dale Sr.’s, from 18th with three laps to go, to the winner’s circle. That race was fantastic, and I look forward to watching this weekend. Oh, and the Craftsman Trucks are going to be racing at ‘Dega for the first time ever this year. I sure hope I get all my chores done in time to plop down on the sofa…

God bless you all, and stay safe. Leave the racing to the professionals, or at least to the cars and motorcycles on the tracks this weekend.

NuTang? What's That?

BlogMad's newsletter came with an invitation to join NuTang, and make some BlogMad credits if I wrote about and linked to the NuTang site.

Honestly, it's another free-blog site. I have enough fun/trouble/headaches with Blogger, thank you very much.

OK, enough gratuitous attempts at getting more BlogMad credits.

How was your weekend?

Baby Pool is up to 300 credits for the Big Prize, and the consolation prize is at 70 credits. Tell your friends, and get them all to join up!

I have a few projects to work on, so I'll leave you all with the standard:

God Bless you all, and be safe!