THE CONTINUING NIGHTMARE

I went to my doc yesterday , and while he gave me pain meds and antibiotics he also made a very strange look when he looked at the hole in my mouth and sent me to a dentist friend of his who fit me in this morning.I am very much dentist phobic and I'm pleased to say he is a very cool guy.
He said he could remove the tooth in about 30 seconds , but the infection is so bad (and he's going out of town and doesn't want to leave me in a lurch in case something bad happens) he gave me a stronger antibiotic that specifically targets the kind of infection I have and referred me to an oral surgeon on Monday who could "manage the infection".
Hopefully this antibiotic will do the trick.

PONYRIDE DOES UNCLE TUPELO
This is some of Ponyride 2...enjoy...

STUPID SHIT I HAVE DONE OR SAID TODAY

I went to wal*mart and bought CO2 cartridges and pellets for my long lost pistol that Ann found buried in the pantry the other day...then I shot it several times at a variety of objects in the front yard.The police have not shown up yet...
I compared the arc of a stick of sandalwood incense to the arc of my erect penis out loud.It's funny how being pilled out makes everything you think come out of your mouth.
I suggested to Ann that we hop on a plane and go to India and get slurpies.
I've said nigger a lot.
Lt will be here soon to begin (and hopefully finish) the new PonyRide project.
here's some more cover art...
I said mao pa doodle flow padoodle kitty kitty cow cow in memory of a grafitti on the stoner picnic table at my high school.
I said I would drink the ass sweat of Milla Jovovich and ask for seconds.
It's gonna be an interesting session :P.

PILLED THE FUCK OUT

There's a reason I don't take pills...and it's because I fucking love them.I forgot that's the reason I don't take pills.But I am taking some darvocet for pain management until I can see my doctor on Monday and all I can say is- wow...I'm fucking pilled out.
I mean here I am at 5 something in the morning drinking a giant gay ass coffee from 7-11 listening to Ween's the mollusk (amazing musical weirdness even if you aren't pilled out...have I mentioned that I'm...)
Fucking amazing...Irene is giving me strange looks.
LT is coming over today to help me out with my next PonyRide project...this one is all dirty guitars and fucked up lyrics...I've already done the cover art...check it out... I've slow roasted some carnitas for the occasion and there's holiday shiner beer and of course the wad-ka.:).
I'm very excited about this project and if I play my cards right I'll be posting at you tube tonight...
When I was out at Rusty's place the other day, he played me some Ween and Flaming lips...So yesterday I used the rest of my Christmas money and scored the mollusk by Ween and Clouds taste metallic by The Flaming lips...Rusty and I have an affinity for lyrics in common...and these bands are word smart in my opinion.
Anyway...blah blah blah...enjoy your Sunday , it is Sunday-right?

JENNY

Once upon a time , about 31 years ago I had a partner in crime who happened to be a girl...we did all manner of crazy shit together and she was my best friend. I got to see her today after all those years.I can't tell you how much it means to me to reconnect with her and all the other people from my "back in the day" days I've found this year.It's been a truly magical year.




TERRY...

I was talking to my son the other day and he had been talking to my ex Debbie who lives in Ohio.They have stayed in touch over the years which is cool,but the relationship ended badly and i haven't talked to anybody from that side in years. He told me that debbie had had a rough year and that "somebody named Terry" had died.Well taht somebody was Debbie's sister in law and someone that I loved very much.
She left behind her husband Gary, who was my fishing buddy and three beautiful daughters,who are all grown up now,but I'm sure miss their mom.
Of the daughters Lindsay was my special one, all awkward arms and legs and freckles and red hair.We had a connection that was sadly lost when Debbie and I split up.I mourned that loss for years.And then to hear that terry had died.I had to call.
And we spoke for almost two hours...it was a healing thing for me and a chance to remember Terry and give her props.
The hits just keep on coming people...


From left: Steve (I think),Ashley,Gary,his Brother Mike (with bottle of beer)guy in bandanna???,guy in tye dye shirt???, sweet Lindsay and her mom, Terry.
May she rest in peace.
Oh,that's me pre tattoos, passed the fuck out from too much schnapps :).I'm glad they didn't have markers!

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

That led me to here...the fucking emergency room of South Austin hospital.But there is a story to tell first.

I woke up this morning in the worst pain I have ever experienced.It was as if someone had put a royal fucking on the right side of my face. I went on in to work but quickly figured out I was no good...I woke up my foreman (who was sleeping in his truck) and showed him my swollen face then drove to my doctor's office.
The place was fucking packed to the gills with all manner of emergency room weirdos and I bailed...I had my camera with me for some reason...don't ask why...I was delusional.
Anyway...I digress...
My doctors office was closed in "observance of the holiday"...don't get fucking sick or injured on Christmas because you are fucked if you do.
So I went to this walk in clinic and only after I had spent an hour filling out forms they told me they couldn't help me unless I paid up front because they were unable to verify my insurance...because my insurance office was CLOSED "in observance of motherfucking Christmas"
I thought there was a war on Christmas or something...So I am hungry and i go to Maudies for the gringo breakfast and some margs (purely medicinal) and I didn't think I would see anyone I knew...I walk in and there's Michelle and Carry...old friends from the old Maudies!
After, I went to Waterloo and bought the Band of Horses catalog...it's all about distraction man...
So in desperation I go to one of my friends house who is a pill head thinking I could get some vicodan to kill the pain until I could see my doctor on Monday, but he wasn't home.
So I called another friend in the area who is a nurse and he gave me some pills...but they expired in 2005.This is not going well.
So I got a call from my friend Rusty and told him my tale.He was all "all they are gonna give you is amoxicillin and I have some, come on out and I'll make some calls to find some pain pills.Turns out it was penicillin and I can't take that shit.
So I spent the afternoon out at his place and let me tell you...it was awesome.even though I was in pain I was in the presence of a very good friend and later, my other buddy Jeb came out and it was all good for a while.
There were all these people trying to take care of me and that felt really good.I always knew Rusty was a good friend but today I learned what high regard he has for me for circumstances I won't go into now...let's just say we are very close friends and very much kindred spirits.That's him with the Satan eyes :P
So I get home and it gets worse and I go to the emergency room. A fucking waste of my time...I was in so much pain I was crying fucking blood tears.Annabelle went to her Mom's and got me some Darvocet.It's working...thank jeebus.
I am feeling a bit better as a result and I know she was worried about me.
So really the best medicine I had today was my honey and my friends rallying around me in my time of need. I'm a very lucky man.
Not exactly a "I sold my watch to buy you this brush for your long, luxurious hair-I sold my long luxurious hair to buy you a fob and chain for your watch" story but it comes close I think.
But that could be the Darvo talking...

MERRY CHRISTMAS YA'LL...

Irene and I took a walk to Twin Falls...that was her present and this is yours...
enjoy...

I was gonna give you China Doll but I sent that one to someone else and to you tube...

WIRE PULL

Our wire arrived this morning bright and early.Here's half of it...
Here's the other half with some of the pulling crew standing around waiting for the powers that be to decide how it was going from here to the basement.Since the big reels wouldn't fit in the stairwell and they were too heavy to step down the stairwell anyway , The crane operator ended up lowering them down through a hole...I was busy with the tugger at that point and didn't get a chance to take pictures of that.
I was busy installing the supports for the tugger. Here's a wires eye view of it.
And here it is attached to the rack we built to keep it in place.
Here I am feeding the rope to the guys at the other end.235 ft. away.
Here's the other end.
Here's the feeding crew making up the head (connecting the wire to the rope).
Two down , one to go...
On the tugger...This one ended up taking us both pulling on the rope to get it through.With the tugger jumping around like crazy.
Those three pulls took us all day.

THE SUICIDAL ICE CUBE AND OTHER ASSORTED BULLSHIT

We have a phenomena in this house...every time either one of us empties the ice trays one cube leaps out and kills itself on the kitchen floor.Without fail,every time.
Part of the dues I pay to my union include a death benefit payment.Basically , every time a member dies you pay $7.50. The surviving family gets a fat check. Apparently,they are having such a hard time collecting on these payments they are starting to print the names of members who are more than 3 death benefits behind in the monthly newsletter - kind of like how papers print the names of people busted for DUI or solicitation of prostitution. They are going the shame route...meh.I guess I'm gonna be in the newsletter if they start doing it before the January / February issue.
Christmas is right around the corner...in 51 or so hours the nightmare will be over for another year. I have done no shopping. I am not into it at all this year. There are scheduling problems with the kids and it's looking like we will do the gift thing with them in early January. I won't come out and say I hate this time of year , but I could do without it - except for the kids.
And finally...here's the display of unresolved childhood Christmas issues currently blazing across the street...
For some reason , I keep thinking about my pellet gun...:)
My punk leather jacket...

I GOT YER FUCKING LIGHTS...


Here's our lights...nice. And the guys across the street I guess aren't home, so no lights for them...I guess we win by default...

Yeah Clattenburgs!

TEXAS WEATHER

Yesterday it was a balmy 70 degrees...this morning it was in the mid 30's.So what's a boy to do?
I made a big honkin' pot of garlic sausage gumbo.



We put up our Christmas lights yesterday...a single strand of multi lights.Pretty pathetic when you look across the street...Bah Humbug I say.
This is bordering on the ridiculous if you ask me,and during the day they are deflated lumps of color that are creepy looking.A more festive display of unresolved Christmas issues I have never seen.
So this morning I got a second strand...I'll post a pic tonight of both to compare / contrast.

PATCHES

I got a call from my brother Bill this evening , I missed it , but I called him on my way to the store. We shot the breeze for a few and when I was in the store he told me the reason for his call. His beloved Patches had passed from the doggie mortal coil. Same age as Theo...damn. So there I am in the meat section choking back tears. Bummer for Billy boy...he loved that dog and Patches loved him.
So I decided on the way home I should do a song...but it should be different and special...and dirge-y.The six string wouldn't do.
I busted out the bass and the flange pedal...I don't mess with the bass hardly ever , but here it is...
This is for you Bill...may Patches rest in peace until you see him again.
Thanks for making me cry in public :).I will place Patches in the book of names with all those who passed before him. He's in good company.

MORE FUN IN THE BASEMENT


The two pipes going into that junction box on the left are mine.They are for comm and data.

Here's a better view of the box I piped into.
Here's a fine example of poor planning on the spec end of the job and our solution to it. I ran the smaller pipe and the locations where they went through the floor were reversed , hence the crazy rolling offsets.Thankfully , it's in the crawl space!
This is the run up to the spaghetti piping.Three 3" pipes flanked by my 2" pipes.Probably a total of over a 1000 feet of pipe.You can't see where it turns left and continues to that switch gear I posted a picture of the other day.The distance between the ceiling and the ground here is about 3 feet.
Big fun...seriously , it was cool.

KIND WORDS...BLUNT , HONEST , BUT KIND NONETHELESS-

Bear with me on this one. Bonuses were suppose to go out today - I've gotten one every year I've been with this contractor.Paychecks were handed out today and no bonus. No big deal , I look at a bonus as a bonus - you get one when times are fat, you don't when times are lean. Times are lean.But when another IJ got one and asked me if I got mine , I had to wonder - did they forget about me ? Had I done something wrong ?
We had our Christmas BBQ thing at the shop this afternoon and I pulled my foreman aside and asked "Is there a problem with my performance"? Here's where it gets interesting...
What followed was a 30 minute discussion of my plans to take my license exam in the spring , and that plan was in his estimation a bad one. Here are some highlights...
...At your current rate you are more than worth the money...
...I have X amount of journeymen and a bunch of grunts that do what I tell them..."I need a red wire from here to here and they do it...that's not electrical work".Why do you think you are off in some corner away from them doing other things?...
...I trust you and you do good work, but you make it harder than it has to be , I see you struggle with things you shouldn't have to struggle with if you just thought ahead more than you do...
...I wouldn't trust you in a live switchgear (me neither!)...
...Can you read prints?...(yes)
...Could I give you a set of prints and could you plan and execute the job,find the specs for lighting types,plug heights etc?...(no)
And it went on and on. The bottom line is I'm not ready to be the kind of journeyman I want to be, so I will wait and learn.
And then there is the financial reality...
...If I had you at your current skill level making journeyman's wages and another journeyman with better skills and I had to cut someone, who do you think I would pick?...
And finally...
...I think you'd be cutting your own throat if you got your license now...
Ouch.
But true.
I can wait.
And I thank him for his honesty.these issues (though not so well defined) have been nagging at me in the back of my mind, but I wrote them off as "fear of success" (see how being a social worker fucks your mind up?) when in reality it's a simple case of I'm not ready yet.
Time for some goal setting.
Oh...it turns out only supervisory level folks got a bonus and this IJ made some foreman very happy and they made an exception,they just forgot to tell everyone to keep mum.

R.I.P JENNIFER GALE...



The Austin Fire Department found Jennifer on a walkway of a Lutheran church where she had been sleeping to get out of the cold.Jennifer was a transgendered ex marine who was homeless and an advocate for those who shared her plight.
She ran for every local office you can imagine. She was a fixture at shitty-I mean city counsel meetings as a speaker on a variety of issues.
My favorite memory was a city counsel run where her ads were drawn , by her , in colored chalk on the sidewalks of Austin.
One of a kind...that's for sure.
We'll miss you Jennifer!

4500.00 ????

I read an "article" (read blurb) at the news 8 website this evening with the headline "Mayor withdraws request to extend Ott's allowance " . Ott would be the new city manager for Austin , and the allowance referenced is a housing allowance. Seems he bought a home here in Austin , but has yet to sell his old one in Foat Wuth.
It's $4500.00 a month. That's fucking insane to me. Do you know what our monthly housing allowance is ? Well it sure in the fuck isn't 4500.00. Do you know what I could do with 4500.00 a month ? And you know the most fucked up thing about this is ...you and I are paying for his short sightedness .
It seems to me you should sell your old house before you buy a new one. And if that doesn't work for you , live in a modest rental or an apartment until the old house sells. It's all about budgeting folks and the shitty, I mean city counsel is suppose to be all about budgeting . I wonder what other kinds of sideways bullshit logic is being played out at our expense ?
I sent an e-mail to the mayor...you should do the same (be polite-I was...I know you're shocked... ).
You can do this by going to the city of Austin website and clicking on city counsel then the mayor , then send him an email.
That's $54,000.00 a year we are paying for an empty house in Fort Worth.
Is it deducted from his already ridiculous salary for coming up with ways to "increase revenue and cut expenses" (read eliminate jobs and fuck us out of even more of our money ).

RESOLUTION REALIZED

I actually pulled it off (with some help from Annabelle)! The Pony Ride CD is reality.
Rather than print covers I decided to draw original covers for each one...here's the first two...

It's so strange to listen to it and go "wow...that's fucking me"...but it is.It's not professional by any stretch , but it's me and my washburn telling the truth.
Update...two new covers...I already dropped the first two off , one in the door latch of a friend and the other in person (so much for stealth...who knew she would be home at 10 o'clock on a Saturday night?) This is so much fun.I can't believe I'm drawing again...it's been a long time.



Update...I had to post this one before I folded it in half.

COME ON NOW...

I got up and took Annabelle to work this morning so I could get her car inspected.I changed the wiper blades and a driving light lens so it would pass.One small problem,you have to have proof of insurance to get an inspection and we don't have a current card (we have insurance...just not a card that proves it).Our printer is on the fritz, so I can't print a new one (our insurance is online).Ann said she would "email me instructions" from work...well , it's almost 3 hours into the day and no instructions.
I could be laying in bed with the dogs watching shitty TV but instead I'm waiting for instructions.
I've got somewhere I need to be later this morning - electrical work - that I'm not looking forward to , but it's a commitment and I gotta...this shit is holding me up.
But I got Levon Helm playing my soundtrack for the day and that somehow makes it all OK.
But come on now...

UPDATE...

I took matters in my own hands and called E-surance and had them e-mail me current cards,called my buddy Al and went to his house (less than 2 miles away) and printed them then, after a nice visit went a mile down the road and got the car inspected.Man , what a fucking ordeal that was...it was like going to the doctor for a complete physical.
Of course I had the beenz with me and the dude doing the inspection was terrified of her- what a pussy.
But the car passed.
And the urgency that was the ticket Annabelle got last week for expired inspection...to get the discounted fine you have to take care of the shit before your appearance date on the ticket.The last ticket i got it was 12 days from citation.
I looked at the ticket when I got home and the appearance date? January 6 , 2009...that's right,I busted my ass for nothing - but it's done.
Needless to say,I shined on my other thing until tomorrow...all I want to do now is play my acoustic and sing to Theo.

BREAKFAST FOR SUPPER


Annabelle was cold all day and craved pancakes and hashbrowns for supper or enchiladas...she got pancakes and hashbrowns , since that was the first thing she mentioned , plus , I'm fucking sick of mexican food.You know , out of all the things I know how to cook for some reason hashbrowns escape me...while these are not quite hashblacks they are still not what I want to see.Someday maybe I will gain the skill of that line cook at IHOP...
But cajun food is another story...I also made some cajun boudin in the roaster...BOO-YA!!
Dads pancakes rule...

PIPES! DAMMIT! LOTS OF PIPES!




Back in baby's arms...or pocket as it were...

Our journey begins deep in dark recesses of the basement...we are following the gray pipe on the left in the rack...Actually,in this picture it's the one on the right , but then I turn around for the next picture , which puts it on the left.

After about 80 feet,the pipe kicks up about 2" and makes a left turn...we have this handy device called a hot box or heat blanket that heats up PVC so you can bend it...
Then we go into and out of a junction box and about 6' later...
We kick up again and make another turn...
Then we penetrate through the wall and change over to metal pipe , or , EMT...That's my pipe, on top.
where we travel another 60 or 70 ' through the most congested space ever. I had to get in touch with my inner mountain goat / monkey to pull this off...We had no bender available on this day , so I had to make the offset out of 2 45's and a coupling...
It was a long way...
But we finally make it to the final stop - the switch gear.That's my pipe on the left...
And that dear readers was the week that was.

WELL...WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT

I was gonna take my camera to work with me yesterday to document the monumental 2 1/2 "
pipe run from hell,but I forgot it.Ann was kind enough to bring it to me at morning break and it turned out the batteries were so drained it wouldn't take any more than two pictures and then crapped out.
I put new batteries in it and took it today...I had the camera , but the memory card was at home in my desk top...Dammit!
But tonight camera and card are reunited and tomorrow there will be pictures.
The other thing that happened was I lost my knife yesterday...it's a Kershaw and totally bad ass.
It looks like this but the handle is a brushed black and gray camo thing.
I had it in my bib pocket of my overalls and I'm sure I bent over and it fell out and i just didn't notice...until I got home.I went back to the site and searched high and low...no luck.Now what makes this knife special is not because it's a Kershaw , it's because I got it from my friend and mentor Rusty.I was seriously bummed.Add to this the fact that it had been lost to me a couple of times before but somehow managed to find it's way home only adds to the mystique.
So today I put the word out...thinking that it was a lost cause,and it was until about an hour before quitting time. Against all hope I was looking in the basement for it and these pipe fitters asked me what I was doing...I said i was looking for my knife and described it to them and continued looking. A minute later one of them said "man,I can't have you looking for something I have".He found it!!!! He's returning it to me tomorrow.He mentioned something about a six pack reward...hell yes I said, what do you drink ? He said the red , white , and blue...so I got him a sixer of bud.
Decent people...they're still around.
Have a good Friday!

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY

In the form a really raunchy funny man - Doug Stanhope, courtesy of our friend in the great white north Special K. I'd link to her blog but she shit canned it months ago.That's cool though,we have our weekly phone calls.
Enjoy Doug...we are!:)

STILL IN THE FUCKING BASEMENT...

I had to douche my ears this evening,with one of those little rubber bulby things you use to suck snot out of babies noses,or clean your ears.I've done the former before , but not the latter. And it was awesome. Why did I douche my ears you ask? Concrete dust from hammer drilling holes for anchors.This dust , when introduced to the ear creates a squishy sound in your inner ear that would make the sanest person climb a roof with an automatic weapon . Screaming "mommie"!!!! Concrete dust has a smell vaguely reminiscent of burning cambodian flesh. It is mas toxica.
Why did I have the cambo dust in my ears you ask? Because I was in such tight quarters drilling overhead holes that it was spraying down on my head like a fucking blizzard as I was perched like a monkey on 8 inch water pipes.
But phase one is done,and it looks good.Tomorrow brings phase two,where I transition from PVC to metal pipe...the pipes that are below my run present a unique challenge...meaning I should be an anorexic midget with the disposition of a tunnel rat on a five day speed bender to pull it off. But I will pull it off...after all it's only 40 feet to the switch gear.
But I get to come home to this...

And NASCAR Jesus...

THE KITCHEN OF REV...


This is our kitchen...really I should say my kitchen, since I do all the cooking...I got some new magnets tonight to celebrate the clean up effort...for some reason I got all domestic.
This is my new Jesus shirt from Wal-Mart...they are hysterical and I love them...
I made chopped brisket BBQ that was so good a cherub was foot bathing in it...seriously,this stuff melts in your mouth.
And now it's TV time...after I listen to some more Band of Horses...