General Happenins Around Kel's House

 

  09-20-08

Kind of odd, lookin at the date I wrote last. 1-29-08...cuz 2-29-08 (leap day) I had my first cortizone shot in the back of my neck. I have a couple of boogered up discs in my neck etc...and yesterday I got back from Reno and my second shot.

It went well I think...

I can now, almost painlessly... scratch my head when trying to find the perfect mix...and not have the pain shoot up and down my arm and shoulder, my right side man boob and my armpit.

Anyway...

Tammy and I were sittin out in the garage yappin...and there are some small medical and dental issues that she needs to be takin care of. There not bad yet but are almost sure to get worse. She's just not really too jazzed about the idea of scheduling, and then having to pay for, some guy to grab a pair of pliers and pull a wisdom tooth out of her head.

Can't say as I blame her...

But...

As we talked it kind of occured to me that, since I'm 5 years older than her, I would be more apt to be the one finding... and sometimes walking thru...the waist deep mud  (mud that sometimes has a more pungent odor) that some parts of life resemble...(like the cortizone thing)  and that, if she'd listen, I could point out alot of the higher ground for her to walk on.

It also occured to me...that that is what we, as parents, and therefore guardians, are doing for our kids. Pointing out some of the higher ground. Some of the safer, more stable paths.

Then it further occured to me...that THAT"S pretty much what our parents have done for us. Waded thru more of the mud and passed on more of the higher ground.

As I took the thought a step further to our grand parents and what gifts of wisdom they've passed down...

It finally dawned on me.

 

 

 

 

We're all idiots.

 

 

 

 

Lord, even for your mercy alone,

I thank you.

 

 

01-29-08

The house lay quiet. 

Soft snores arose from the kids, not-so-soft from Tammy, and a small poof of flatulence from a dog...

And I'm the lucky guy to wake from a dead sleep to the sound of Jaz (our oldest dog) barfing on the living room carpet.

 

great...

 

So I boot the dogs outside, grab some cleaning stuff and head back to the room of horrors...

 

and wimp out.

 

On three separate attempts, I actually made it into the room. T-shirt stretched over my nose, cleaning rag in hand, a can of spray stuff that smelled nice and a bag to shove it all in. 

I attempted to shame myself into it, I made light of it, I tried to ridicule myself into cleaning it. Come to find out my shame knows no bounds... 

I even pondered getting the snow shovel to try the ol' "scoop and pitch".

 

just wasn't gonna happen. Not without adding my .......(nevermind)

 

Anyway, I ended up getting Tammy after 20 minutes of this back and forth crap and she gagged once.

 

once.

 

........I'm taking my ball and I'm going home.

 

 

(01/02/08)

So I came home from work (fast-paced busy day) to a frozen and/or plugged sewer line going to my septic tank, to which a friend was vigorously applying a 50 ft metal snake to unplug and clean and the whole time  scratching the crap (pun kinda intended) outta my toilet. I felt like hugging him for trying to help and poking him in the eye for scratching my throne.......

 Badly......

(sigh)

The funny part (not really) was that it's still plugged. So tomorrow the toilet comes out (after work), the snake goes down the big drain and then resealing and recaulking. Hopefully a fully functioning and leak free unit.

 

(didn't happen)

 

(next day)

"To Let or not Toilet...that is the question."

(a quote from a funny funny friend)

Well the tank ended up being full. I came home from work at lunch time (25 minute drive to get here), did some light diggin to get to it, opened it up and jammed a shovel into the top

and it went, "thud".

 

ew...

 

Poked thru the crust (don't do that, btw) and this stench so thick it has a zip code came wafting its essence of kaka up to greet me and my delicate nose.

  AND I could taste it! 

That's just wrong.

(aackk...)

So I ran like a girl before I spewed and coughed up $600 to have a scuba diver for Roto Rooter come out and pump it.

(sigh)

So how was YOUR day?

After 2 years of messing around and practicing my drum tracking and mixing skills, I finally got a "Thumbs Up" from my friend who's been at this for 30 years and is a Mastering Engineer. So rest assured...when the next 2 CD's are done, the drums are going to sound good. Maybe the rest of it too but definitely the drums.

 

 We got back to work on my son's 1960 Chevy Biscayne 2 dr hardtop. No restoration here...We stripped it down to frame, chopped the front of the frame and welded a 1978 Camaro Z-28 unibody frame and suspension (with disc brakes) to the existing X-frame of the Biscayne. We also took the rear end from the Camaro and mounted it. We rebuilt a 4 bolt main 350 engine from a mid 70's 4X4 Chevy pickup and a T400 transmission from another pickup. Now comes the fun part of putting this jigsaw puzzle back together. I think Humpty Dumpty had a better chance........heh heh

update 8\4\07

Doing some sheet metal replacement. Cut my own floor pan and trunk replacement sections, riveted, sealed and primered. The floor pan behind the drivers seat got a piece on top hammered into place and then I put one underneath the car as well. It's pretty stout. Me n Levi have been taking turns laying underneath the car and taking the grinder with a wire brush to every inch of it. Then it'll get undercoated. Well, I did the first go around anyway. That was my turn.....

------------------------- 

I bought a double kick pedal for my drums. Never used one before but thought it looked like fun. So I waited a week for it to come in, thinking I could just jump on and play.

NOT!

It kicked my butt for about a week. It's almost like learning to play the drums all over again. I'm getting better and tighter with it but I've got a whole new respect for all you guys-n-gals who are good on a double kick. Eventually, I'll be joining the ranks.

8\4\07 another update...still haven't joined the ranks but I'm getting closer...

------------------------

Our dog, Dozer,  part rottweiler part shepherd, is about 100 pounds, black and brown in color with one blue eye and one brown. He looks fairly intimidating. When he stands on his back legs to give my 5' 4" wife a hug, he looks her in the eye. One day a young bird was learning to fly and crash landed in the dog's yard. So Dozer walks over to it, sniffs it and proceeds to give the bird a big sloppy kiss. The bird, obviously offended, hissed and spat some dirty words in bird talk at Dozer, giving him a sound verbal thrashing. Dozer, being the hardened street-tough that he is, tucked his tail, dropped his head and went running to mommy (Tammy, my wife).

I know these kinds of dogs have a bad reputation but I'm firmly convinced that it's not the dog itself. It's the people that own these types of dogs that turn them into the bad-repped canines. Or in Dozer's case, loveable and full of fun that he is, kind of a weenie.  

------------------------

One day, when my son was about 4, he came running into the house crying about a boo-boo on his arm that was just killing him. It looked like a big nasty bruise. Well my wife takes one look at it, licks her fingers and wiped the boo-boo away. AMAZING!  

Somebody should patent the medicinal qualities in mother's spit.

------------------------

So Tammy takes the kids in to town for school shopping. Levi (God bless him) gets pretty much all of his clothes picked out in 10 minutes. Shayla, on the other hand, has got to try on everything, put together outfits and do the color coordination thing. (sigh) She stepped out of the dressing room in these new pants, turned to Tammy and said "Mom, these pants are so tight my butt can't breathe."

uhhmm................nevermind.

She IS her mothers daughter.

-------------------------

 10/12/07

Started working on a new song last nite. I was layin in bed and some of the words started going thru my head at about midnite (sigh) so I got up, went to my garage, fired everything up and started writin. It's kind of a ZZ Top/bluesy kind of song that's about the turds who are whining about "In God We Trust" being on the dollar bill, no prayer in schools, no 10 commandments on the wall type of stuff. I think it's either going to be called..."In God We Trust" or "Shut Up and Sit Down".