Of that Age,,,
Weather went into the basement to check on its gremlin childers,,, Woke this mornin’ to 30sumpins and winds to boot.
And by mid-afternoon, the bones was tellin’ me all abouts it,,,
Feel like someone drove a spike through my shoulder joints, from one side to the other passing through the spine,,,, criminy,,, if this is how Da has been feeling the last few months,,, Yah,,, (it is BTW,,,) Fu!!!! I feel for the man,,, I do. THIS sucks
I’m functional, thats the best I can say,, Comfort is not on that list,,,
Weather has been reversing course since this afternoon, supposed to be mid 60’s tomorrow, 70’s sat and sun,,, then back into the basement for the following week. JUST ABOUT THE RIGHT TIMING for camp,,,,My hopin’ this pain doesn’t follow me the next couple of days though. Poured the Capzasin on both sides and rubbed in Tigerbalm+, I know the area between is just muscles tightened up due to the joint pain. A trip to the Chiro is not off the table just yet, and if I am still feelin’ crippled tomorrow, that call will be made.
Trip to the courthouse with Unk in AM, then off to camp to hook up with Brudda B, Brudda J will join us later as his day is scheduled up prior. Been an upgrade at the campsite too: not portajohns, but a Vault Toilet was added in last week. No more chasing down trees for those moments of “gotztago’s”(downside to this: that means traffic is up and noted by the Park Rangers. Not as secluded as it usedta be. )
ANywhuzzitss,,, whats up with the shoulders? YEARS,,, Years of shooting High draw bows with Handshock,, Years of shooting high powered Rifles,,, Years of handling Impact Drivers of various wieghts and configurations,,, Years of Swinging Hammers,,,,
All of those shocks and bangs and sudden stops do damage, small, un-noticed at the time, but ACCUMULATIVE,,, And when the weather turns,,,, Most of my readers will concur,,, its an age thing. You young’uns,,, take heed, this is real, not imaginary bullshit of the old and feebs. (and there is some ‘stress related’ points here as well. I store stress in my shoulders, the chiro has even made note of that. When my stress levels go up, the muscles tighten up, and eventually PAIN arrives. The cold only helped bring it on.)
and my journey has only begun,,, I’m only 57. This ‘machine’ has seen better days, sort of like Bloo and Buffalo have better days behind them. They get rather cranky when the cold hits. The operating system of this machine is still spot on, the interface can get glitchy, and the mechanical side has some issues, but we are still running down that road,,, (albeit, a little slower and not quite the full horsepower rating we came with from the factory floor.)(BUT, we knows more tricks now,,,LOL) ‘This too shall pass’ just not right now,,,
Topical analgesics applied,, NSAID OTC’s in system,,, Sleep and rest needed, and with upcoming decompression at Camp, I’ll be right as rain soon enough
T’ain’t my first rodeo,,, certainly won’t be my last (at least, not at this time,,,but thats truly out of my hands,,,)
Live
Learn
LAUGH
LOVE
LOAD!!!
It’s late,,, I’ve been busy
getting ready for the upcoming weekend, making sure that my camp gear is packed-n-ready to toss in Buffalo tomorrow eve.
Fletched out another 12 shafts for the weekend. Dunno how good the other gents are with string and stick, but i expect at least one failure/loss to the void. Arrows tend to traverse parallel universes when ‘not accurately’ thrown.
Interestin’ day at the J.O.B. Been lots of ‘clean up’ goin’ on lately, and I was packing in some of my own there. Interstingly enough, i found where the “shop kats” had been doing business, and least to say, the stink was ‘unique”,,,,
UGH!!! Came home early to take Da to the PhyTherapy, and tossed all my rags into the hamper and jumped my arse straight into the shower; Even MamaKat wrinkled her nose at me when i arrived. “Da, you STINKS!!!”
Not much to talk about in the great wide world, but I was interested in a read over at BCE’s place,,, a ‘reblog’ of Tactical Hermits spawn’s writing. Yah, we came a long way since the 2000 days, and it ain’t all for the better. Look at your waistline for one,,, Then do a close inspection of your ‘online time”. Betcha its around HOURS a day, not just minutes,,, I know there have been weeks where my time HERE, at the shop of work and words, is numbered near the teens. That doesn’t include my surfing, or emails, or just Utoobie feeds.
I’ve said it more than once,,,,” we are SPOILED and gotten lazy,,,,”
at least in comparison to where we were in the 80’s abnd 90’s,,,, Heck,,, even the early Aughts of this Century… I didn’t have much of an online presence until around 2008, and that was AFTER running a production company AND being a National tour manager,,,, In that latter, emails were It,,, we didn’t have much to do with websites or the like, though those were taking off, just not to todays levels,,,
it’s been one helluva trip since 2001,,,, and I can not say ‘for the better’,,, fact, I TRULY think we were happier back then, even if we didn’t realize it.
In some ways, I see people ‘regressing’ back to those times. Not all, but enough. Look at the recent demands for OLD vehicles. I was looking online (fakebook, but is what it is) and seeing SERIOUS spikes in prices for anything older than 2015 (vehicles,,, machine tools, TOOLS in general,,,)
WHY?
Because the shit was built better!!! No other reason. They didn’t build for “Planned Obselence” back then… Of course some of the stuff was absolute Shitte (20teen toyotas for example, especially the tacomas with rotting frames,,,) but for the most part, you could expect 20-30 years from the stuff. (And the older, the MORE years to expect,,, Like Southbend lathes built prior to WWII,,,)
one of my Utoobie feeds is “Inheritence machining’,,, dood goes out of his way to find OLD machines in need of refurb and documents the processes,,, And he is quite talented in the ‘metal’ processes.
Here i am attempting to Reviving an early aughts One Ton Work truck. WHY? not because it has all the bells and whistles of a modern hicle, but because IT WILL OUTLIVE ME when done right. That it was in the shape its in tells tales about MASSIVE ABUSE and neglect on the part of the former owner. Look at Buffalo,,, 336K miles on her ORIGINAL block,,, I have had to replace the transmission and rear diff, but that ENGINE is still kicking ass and taking names… A 4.3L is essentially the same block that Bloo has in her, minus 2 cylinders. Parts interchange all over the place,,, (and believe me, there has been some temptation to swap out the 4.3 in donor truck with Bloos block,,, at least temporarily. Just temptation, and not even sure if its doable,,, Never researched that far,,, but the temptaion is there.)
sigh,,,, Camping weekend ahead,,, MUCH NEEDED break upcoming… Don’t even want to think about Bloo and the like, other than to VENT,,, Maybe some solution will arise outside of the box I have found myself in,,, Invested heavily in her, and won’t back out now,,, but dammit,,,, RUN!!!! thats all I ask. (reliably,,, she does run, just smokes like a bonfire in a drizzle while running.)
And another aspect that people are trying to get away from
SPYING!!!!
I see many people ditching the smart phones… I wish I could, but with interstate banking (banking in general,,, if ya ain’t online, companies whine bitch and moan about it.) Yah,,, fact is, I painted myself into a corner with the ‘tech’ and modern living. If/When I choose to give up on modern living,,, this smartphone is going to get deep-sixed into a lake and I wont’ look back,,, But, that means serious lifestyle changes and such that I am NOT yet willing to make. (for one, it means killing this blog, and I sorta like being able to come here and just unload the day to day.)
One thing going on in my circles: all of us are keening for WATER TIME,,,, most all of us had a very dry year last year. Only reason “LIVING”,,,, Only,,, Is it? or is it just ‘existence’? Me thinks that last,,,, we ain’t living anymore,,, we are just existing to exist, pay taxes, and bitch moan and whine about how fucked up the world seems, Or even blow all of that off completely and only go through the motions of ‘living’ while pretending everythiing is ‘just fine”
let me cut straight to the point. The distractions are coming at us RAPID FIRE, for a reason. FACT IS: this reality sucks ass, and is 20 levels below what WAS,,,, back before 9-11. back before the Tech invaded our pockets and started spying on us.
BACK WHEN PHONES WERE CHAINED TO THE WALLS,,,,,
Makes me wanna move to a hillside and become a Hermit, it do,,,
Ooops that didn’t work out so well did it?
Ok,,, Laughing at myself here,,, It ain’t all that bad,,, is it? Just some days feel worse than others,,, BUT,,, I do stand on my statement of “distractions coming RAPID FIRE”,,,, They come so fast, we can’t recall events from a year ago, IMPORTANT events, that acutally have some bearings on todays headlines….. But no,,, That we ‘took out Irans Nuclear abilities” but suddenly, the attacks on Iran are to take out their nuclear capabilities,,,, WTF over?
I digress,,,
I’m venting
I’m scatterbrained too…
but y’all knew that,,,,
More laters,,,
Love y’all
Stay safe and SANE out there,,, (I know, thats a tall order,,,)
Live
LOVE
Laugh
LEARN
LOAD!!!!
Sounds,,,,
just gonna forwarn ya,,, this is a drunken post,,, Started kinda early in the eve,, was fletching a couple of shafts for the upcoming weekend, and cracked a can,,,
I get drunk, I get LOUD!!! And the little system I has gets plenty loud,,,
But as I was soberin’ up, (EVILZZZ) I was jammin on some Toadies. that band out of Texas back in the ninties,,, Possum Kingdom was thier real hit, but the entire album was something of a masterpeice in mindfuck,,,
sorry, not gonna elaborate on that, ya just gotta find a full version and dive in,,,
BUT,,,
My enebriated mind and ears,,, was jamming out to “possum kingdom” and ‘tyler“,,, holy forks to the nines batman,,,, I really dug on that ‘texas sound’ back when this first came out, but man,,, with age and some experiance under my belt, I TRULY appreciate the effort of production that went into that recording. NOTHING is missed,,, its all there,,, nothing muddying up the mix: focus on the bassline, its IN YOUR FACE with that low string hieght to give the fret buzz of the 60’s’ Listen for the hat, china , crash, they are there right on top where they should be, listen for the snare: you can tell its a porkpie chromed out BEAST,,, And that Strat with some Blues man distortion just hovering there in the background, being the icing on the cake, feeding the emotions of the vocals,,,,, And the vocals,,, near dry, no hall verb or over the top effects except at first with the reverse delay,,,
this ‘session’, IMO, is right up there with the Steely Dan sessions of ‘Hey Nineteen” and Bostons Intro Albums.
Yah, I’s a music GEEK,,,, Some recordings are just PERFECT,,, Toadies Rubberneck should be up there in your “listen to this” list of “WOW” albums. Granted, there is that “MindFuck” aspect of it. It can be read, complete album-wise, as the story of a serial killer. or it could be defined as the confessions or someone just frustrated enough to imagine such,,,, You decide,,, BUT artistically speaking WOW,, JUST FUCKING WOW,,,,
And this is how a Dio spends his off time between wrenches and arc spatter,,, or at least when the keyboard muse isn’t calling my name with teasing breathy erotic tones.
i really, truly miss the entertainment world. i just don’t have the ears I need. The skills are still there, but I don’t trust me ears in that sort of environ any longer. Maybe a studio, but I don’t think most studios run the wattage i want to “Hear” like I do here at the “stead. LOL even my neighbors get to listen and ain’t nun-o’-em close to me.
its gettin’ late, I have to sober up a bit before bed, and guzzle nuff H2O to not be a fuckin mess tomorrow morn.
laters
love y’all
Love
LIVE
Learn
LAugh
LOAD!!!!
Chapters
A repeat from the past here,,,, Someone seemed to like this post yesterday and I went for a re-read, and, well,,, read it again,,,
DRL, if’n you are still out there, send up a shout out,,,
We all have chapters in our lives, points where it seems one part of our story ends and another begins. One chapter of my life ended on Dec 31, 1999. I was downtown Cincy trying to enjoy being single, looking for someone to hook up with and bouncing between two bars on Vine St; […]
Chapters
more laters
Three words,,,
First off the list today,,, GO READ,,, Frans place has several good posts up. All worth your time, trust me.
THIS’UN, though not Frans work(but link provided by him), I whole-heartedly concur with. The “Troubles” of Ireland and The UK, are only just begun: things will only accelerate until the Brits and Celts, and Scots get their spines back and become the curmudgeons of old.
And looking at NewYuck, we aren’t far behind if we don’t start standing ground and sayin “NO” at that medieval cretins, and stepping on scrotums with prejudice.
As for my little world: BlooTwuck, Blowed up dreams and aspirations (Blowed up, NOT destroyed,,, not even close.) Da/Doctor chasin, PhysTherapy stuff (he’d better be a good boy and do what they say, I can’t babysit 24-7) Sis comin’ into town (that will be a relief with Da for a spell) Drinkin’ Camping trip this weekend,,,
Well,,, I sorta had a “come to God” moment, and considering I believe the “God” of the Old Testament is a False God (and the adherents of the old religions are just this side of “Satanic”, but I digress,,,) Thats A LOT! I essentially (FYI, This is not open for discussion in Comments on this post. IF you want to argue with me, go over to this page, and leave all you want. BUT, Read the first paragraph and understand, YOU WILL BE IN THE PUBLIC EYE,,, But please,,, prove me wrong,,,,)
Anywhooos,,,, ‘come to god’ moment. This is actually something right inline with the Buddhist tenents as well “Let that shit go!” (paraphrased but you get my point.) I quite literally ‘prayed’ with the anchor of ” I know I am just one spark of the IS, not the know all be all, and this is beyond me,,, Please guide me in the direction YOU intended, and nudge me when I stray,,, ” (there was more, but thats the gist,,,)
And it worked. The weight of all of this shit is off my shoulders, I feel much easier about the day to day, the cracked block smokey engine, the property that I co-own with my Unk that needs ‘legally’ divided up and ‘Deeded’ before some ugly comes down the pike. Niether of us is getting any younger and he ain’t looking all that good these days,,, (about like Da, maybe worse,,,) I AM THINKING CLEARER,, Thats the big point. The Engine thing,,, will happen when and if its supposed to happen,,, I leave that to Universe and keep my eyes open for that sign. The “little” issues that keep telling me ‘you don’t need to be a mobile mechanic’, like the fact that I still haven’t business cards for that aspect, and no word from the printer on a final ‘draft’ for printing, OR a properly running base vehicle (thanx Bloo’s former owner, and my over confidence,,,) “It will be what it will be” and I can do no other.
or as one of my fellow emps likes to say, Let go, Let GOD,,,, (Universe, IS, the Pelorma, Monad, BUT, not the DemiUrge, archons etc
Side note Fred: Package rcvd, YES, pay it forward!! I do try in my own small way,,, even if its just thinking outloud about things and hoping someone sees a different view in the reading. And Thank you!!! It is appreciated!!!
This weekend is Camp with Brudda B and Brudda J. There is a catharsis when we camp in this small group: we get a chance ‘to let our hair down’ and not be the Stoics the people in our worlds see us as (and I can not tell you how many times I have been called ‘Superman” at work because I do so much shit by myself It gets old. McGyver,,, ok, I kinda take a pride in that,,, Doing it all, every day, by ‘self: that can break a body down.) All three of us have been carrying hella wieghts the last year or so,,, Time to unload, get advice, or just the “me too” so we know we aint’ alone,,,
Drinkin’ helps break down the walls, and believe me, we have some damned tough walls,,,Even being in trusted company, those walls resist being moved or lowered.
So, shortened week, but not unproductive: Friday will be courthouse with Unk, then onward to CAMP, and some Spiritual therapy much needed. I may call the Chiro tomorrow and schedule an appt for Satyrday for meself,,, Could use a little reailignin’ of the zipper in my back called a spine. Take an hour from camp to get straightened up physically.
Or not..
will see
More laters
LLLLL!
(, ‘)
drizzly sonday
Kinda ooggy weather out,, not cold, mid 60’s, not high winds like yesterday.
And Bloo’s engine is dead. Well, not dead, dead, only somewhat dead, sort of alive-ish currently, but
CONDEMNED
I loosened two of the bolts holding the AC/PS bracket on, and fired her up,, Smoked a little, but I was expecting that since the last time she ran, she was smoking A LOT. Let her get to operating temps while listening in on valve train and crankshaft (Stethoscopes are wonderful for us hard of hearin’ types)
No smoke after 5 minutes, or so little as to not be anything but trace amounts.
Shut her down,,, tighten those two bolts back up and fired her back up.
looks good,,, looks good,,, NOPES!!!! Smoke and in copious amounts!!! DAMMIT!!! I was so hoping I would be wrong!!!
Granted, it takes very little oil to make LOTS of blue tinted smoke. That she is not getting oil in the coolant sort of blows my mind, (and the HC test is always negative) But there is definitely some passage between a cylinder and the oil galley’s: one that gets opened up when those bolts get torqued down.(and because of where they are, what they hold, they MUST be tightened to some degree. They could easily walk out and rip apart the fan and radiator if not tight.)
So right now, my mood matches the weather quite well. Drizzly grey and BLAH!!!
I know now which direction my future holds. And I’m ok with it now. Just a matter of time. She can stay where she is: I’ll fire her up on occasion, move her around so the tires are getting ‘excersize’ and other components aren’t ‘rotting away’ (brake discs, clutch, etc etc) I’ll even leave the insurance in place for now, as i may need to run a smokin’ truck for fuel at some point.
and of course, WATCH THAT OIL LEVEL like a hawk.
Not gonna give up. Too much invested, and other than engine troubles, she is a good truck, one that isn’t buried under onerous amounts of computer controls and federal regulations of ‘remote kill’ features.
and parts are still readily available (so long as the JITdelivery system holds together.) (and even if that fails, these trucks are littered everywhere,,, parts is parts!)
Time to visit my happy place in my head,,,,
More tomorrow
Live
Learn
Laugh
Love
LOAD!!!
The costs of living
Completely random post, just some thinks about “where” I reside on this blue marble of mostly surface water.
I have stated a time or two, that I live in the Armpit of Southern Kentuck. Don’t wanna belittle the people here, many I meet are great people, a little downtrodden (hence the high rate of Blue Blood Democrats around here) usually underappreciated in the great wide world, and lots of that due to the local economy. This area never fully recovered from the Great Depression of a hundred years ago.
But I have been doing some stuff around the “Stead today, and one of those is trying like hell to get my jeans cleaned up. I have two pair that are flat trashed from the BlooTwuck adventures, and it seemed like, no matter WHAT I did, they didn’t improve. I tried what was seemingly everything, short of taking them to a drycleaners (and that wasn’t off the table, trust me. Might have been cheaper to just buy new pairs, but WHY? there ain’t a damned thing wrong with these past the oil stains that just will NOT go away.)
today, I dropped a $20 for a gallon of “Purple Power” degreaser. Dropped a pint in a 5 gallon bucket, filled that 2/3rd full of STEAMING hot water (and its 84F out right now,, HOT water,,,) and have been plunging those jeans up and down off and on for a couple of hours. Changed the bucket once already (GROSS!!!) and on my second round.
And I started thinking about ‘go to a coin laundry and use a front loader; those get clothes cleaner,,,’
Umm,,, yeah,,,, Where’s that coin laundry ? 20 minutes away!!! We don’t even have a damned coin laundry in this town. Looked further, we dont’ even have a drycleaners!! One little hardware store that is barely kept stocked, a couple of chain fastfood places, and LOTS of Pharmacies. 9!,,,
Ah,,, But Dio,,, thats small town rural for ya! Mehbe,,, only, the local town is also the seat of the county,,, its where the courthouse is. Its where the lawyers outnumber the teachers at the local school. Its where there is a SECOND sales tax on every purchase! (go outside city limits, and thats gone.)
You can see one place, boarded up, that was a coin laundry many many moon ago. The weeds in the lot say its been gone for over two decades: you can barely see the asphalt parking areas.
And the little guys struggle,,,
I have noted, if you are NOT in a certain group around here, or accepted by said group, You will NEVER compete in any local election. If there were ever an audit of this area for corruption, I would bet it to be near as bad as the Epstein lists in who’s who of scammers. I have personally seen a small business on the take, in collusion with one of that group. Literal laundering of money through School Budget,,, One of the jobs we are currently on, stinks to high heaven of the same tactic, THOUGH, Bossman and Son of Bossman are not in that group(but are accepted by them). We just happen to be the only company doing that particular needed service. But the Budget and the work being done by other companies? No,, that whole scenario stinks of dead fish and backroom deals.
Its classic “Good Ol’Boys” clique in acton.
And we’ve no coin-laundry without a daggum drive and half,,, And about that far to get a decent burger that doesn’t have arches imprinted on it. Further if you want REAL food.
Do I sound a bit jaded on this note? Apologies,,, its just another thorn pricking my side. One of many that I get,,, I don’t mind being poor,,, I really don’t, but there are some things that I learned to take for granted in living arrangements living up in the Sin-Sin-nasty. Coin laundry were ubiquitious to every burb, burg, and even the little armpit village,,,
Its hard to justify a brick and mortar business when the local gov taxes you 69 days of a thirty day month, and then looks at you as if you were the evil doer, wanting to limit your tax footprint.
Hmmm,,,, Seems like something I have harped about many a time here, no?
Carry on, Keep on Livin’! And don’t pet the sweaty shit!
LLLLL!!!!!
(, ‘)
Dio's Workshop 