If I'm Gone

I made it! Got through my last day at work and am ready to relax for the next ten days. Tomorrow I've got some errands to take care of, just little things like finally clearing up my truck registration, get food for the kid to eat while I'm gone, laundry. Wednesday is pack up and go over the truck once to reduce any possible troubles while on the road. Looking at the weather in Phoenix, I better get new wiper blades as thunder showers are predicted. I've never seen it just rain in Phoenix, it's either dry and hotter than hell, or deluge.

I'm really looking forward to the drive (Hah!), I've made it about 30 times, but I was much younger then. I once made the drive from my parents driveway in San Pedro to the parking lot of my Frat in Tempe in 5 hours and 55 minutes, and this was back in the days that I-10 came to a stop in Buckeye and you had to take back roads for the last. Out off 360 odd miles total, the last 45 were "interesting".

No going for records this time, I just want to get there. I'm hoping to leave L.A. around 4-5 AM, beating any traffic. I'll stop in Blythe for something to eat, then the final run, so I'll land there around noon.

Steve assures me that they have the internet in Arizona, but whether I'll get around to posting is dicey. My intention is to live blog the weekend, but I've hung with these guys a long time, so a 3 AM blog of "wEnt to teh place today to get something that jOe needed and we got lost and had to go badk home to member what we left for anyways", isn't something I want to look back on. Nor would you like to read it, I'm sure.

Once in Phoenix, my truck doesn't move. I've been out of that town too long so I won't recognize anything. I'll make an exception if I can meet with friends from the net, but that will be early enough that I can find my way.

I can't say it enough, after two years of life just sucking (work and home), to have 10 days for just ME has me het up something awful.

It Never Rains Here

Great Googilly Moogilly, it is raining like a mutha out here. I can't remember the last time it rained this hard for this long. Normally I don't mind driving in the rain, but coming home this morning was the second most scariest drive I've had in the last twenty years.

The scariest was driving from Flagstaff Az. to Phoenix in a monsoon where it was like someone had aimed a fire hose at my windshield and you have to guess whether to keep your speed and pray the car (somewhere)in front of you keeps their speed, or slow down and pray the car (somewhere)behind you slows down too.

This morning was the second, only because I got off at 5 A.M. and traffic was really light. Hitting that lake on the freeway in the dark didn't help. I drive a F-150 Supercab long bed P/U, a vehicle that is not known for it's ability to handle hydroplaning with ease. As those of you who have driven P/U's know, with the lack of weight over the rear end, anything that happens usually will cause your ass end to try to get in front. I had the same problem with my '65 Mustang (the lift kit didn't help). Luckily I was only going 55 and no one was close so I just let the truck coast through it without major corrections and she stayed pretty straight, so it just had a pucker factor of 6 out of 10.

The rest of the drive home was low speed and only minor harrowing, although the wife started calling my cell to have me pick up something on the way home. On a good day with no traffic and on cruise control I may answer the phone, today I took the phone as tossed it in the passenger seat so the vibrate wouldn't distract me.

Surprisingly, work wasn't bad. Even though it rained hard most of the night, the site was able to keep up with the extra water, so I was wet and cold most of the shift, at least I wasn't having to come up with "innovative" ways to dispose of the rain water.

Our satellite dish was another matter. Every time the rain would start pouring, I lost the damn signal. I missed the end of two programs due to losing contact with the satellite. I wouldn't mind if it happened during the middle of the program, as I miss a lot of those normally on a shift. With TV now-a-days, if you get the beginning a bit of the middle and the end, you can fill in the pieces, but to see most of an hour program and miss the last ten minutes...you've missed the whole program.

Luckily I've got cable at home, so as I write, I can watch the program again and get the answer to why all that crap happened.

I ain't leaving the house till this quits or I have to go back to work tonight.

A Hiatus From My Hiatus

Well no, I'm going to be posting, not even sporadically for the the next week. I'm going to be out of town. My son and I are flying up to Portland. This was a planned trip, but the timing is extra lucky.

The original plan was to get Grandma's car for my son and drive it home. Just a road trip for us guys. Now my Mom isn't doing well and is incarcerated in the hospital again, so it's probably a last chance for my son to see his Grandma.

Even though I'm beyond broke right now, the plane was cheap (using credit card miles) and the Raider's game we're going to on the way back home was paid for months ago. This will be his first Pro football game, as the Raiders left L.A. the year he was born. It's our Raiders (2-6) v. Da Bears (3-5), so it has a chance of being a good game. Of course with the tickets I could afford we're in another time zone from the field, but we are on the home team side and usually those are some of the most entertaining fans to be with. We're planing on wearing a lot of Silver and Black.

To fund this little adventure we loaded up the F-150 with aluminum cans that I'd kept stashed in a back section of my garage. It was like a vault that I'd draw on to have extra cash for Vegas and such. The lady at the recycling center seemed to take a liking to me and due to the amount of cans we brought in bumped the price from the base of $1.15/lb., up to $1.75/lb., then decided that I was so damn nice and incredibly handsome (HA!), she raised it up to $1.80/lb. With two trips there, I got just under $500, and there's still some left in the vault.

We'll probably drive Portland to Oakland on Saturday, 11 hours, but two drivers and being my kid just got his license about a month ago, will be hard to get him out from behind the wheel. It'll mean we can't do the Eureka/Fortuna stopover that I wanted so he could see my Dad's family's home base, but it will allow more time in Portland with my Mom and brother.

I'll be back Monday and still won't have work until Saturday. I'm using all my vacation time being vacations are forbidden between Thanksgiving and New Years, except for the guy we just rehired who already had a British Isles Christmas vacation set up, so I could be looking at some good overtime before the end of the year.

I'll have no internet access until I'm back in L.A., so if you drop by BisW, post a couple of snarky comments on the Rott for me til then.

I Did Survive

If you saw my last post, you'll understand that I was a bit stressed about my son starting to drive.

When I told the wife I was going to take him out for a test run, her only concern was "You aren't going to yell at him are you?"

I promised I wouldn't...unless he did something so damn stupid that he damn well deserved to be yelled at.

So, I took him out and for the first time "legally" driving (he admitted a while ago that friends had let him try) and he didn't do to bad.

Now the only vehicle we have is a F-150 Supercab with the 8 foot bed, and to be honest, even though I've driven school buses and small tank trucks, sometimes the damn size of it makes me uncomfortable.

His main problem is the lack of faith in oncoming traffic. He shies away, towards the parked cars on the right not trusting the car coming the other way will stay on their side of the line.

Only once did I actually panic and go "left,left,left,left,LEFT, and at the next stop light, I was able to rapidly (and calmly) explain my concern and how to avoid giving his old man a coronary in the future.

While I remained completely composed throughout most of our 45 minute jaunt, just pointing out things to watch for. Like braking distance as related to speed. looking for back-up (and/or brake) lights while passing diagonally parked cars, any kid/teenager/idiot walking down the street. And above all, "Always count on that person is going to do the dumbest thing you can think of, so be ready for it."

When we got home, all I could think was "Damn, I need a beer", I popped one and then started to notice that my right leg was cramping up. I'm guessing I had had been pushing down with that leg for the entire drive. I finished 3/4 of the beer I opened and fell asleep due to fatigue.

I've had a day to recoup, so I guess we can give it another try.

Get Off The Road!! (this will be your only warning)

My boy sent me a text message today that sent a shiver down my spine. It's one of those things in life that you know is coming, you just try to stay in denial until it happens.

He got his learners permit today.

The thing that scares the crap outta me is that the only restriction is that he have another licensed driver "able to reach the steering wheel" with him, that is at least 18 years old. That would most likely be his girlfriend.

Right at this moment I'm flashing back on all the dumbass things I did when I first started driving and it's getting harder to breath....and there this tightening in my chest....and my left arm is feeling a little sore.

O.K. That's passed.

My son is, in reality, a fairly levle headed kid. He'll work jobs with lousy pay and few rewards with commitment. Still, he's 18, and the male brain hasn't fully formed until at least.....35...42....

“We control this House, not the parliamentarians!”

So says Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader, after dropping a quick gavel on a bill that dealt with giving money to the illegals. So much for the Dem's end of corruption.

Angela, a poster, at The Influence Peddler sez:

If this stands, it's the end of the Republic.

I know that sound like a line from the Black Helicopter/Chemtrails crowd, but I am gravely concerned about this. I've been a practicing attorney for 32 years, and a Democrat for 40.

We were told that Bush would destroy the Constitution, ignore votes, rig elections and disenfranchise the public. That is exactly what the Democratic leadership has just done.

If this stands, votes will no longer be needed in the house, the Democratic leadership can decide what the outcomes will be - including the outcomes of their own caucus votes.
5:27 PM

What was wrong? The Dem's have totally ignored parliamentary rule and are trying to say it was just a mistake and won't happen again. I've heard the whimpering about the Repub's holding open a vote longer than normal, the difference there was they followed procedure to get extra time, that's allowed, not normal, but it's legal.

Watch this guy and see how comfortable he is with what, I assume, he was ordered to do:

freebies for ILLEGALS that couldn't get passed on "Immigration Reform Bills" now gets tacked onto an agriculture bill.

The end of corruption?

May Day

Or as I refer to it "National Socialism Day".

I just got a phone call from work a few hours ago to tell me I needed to come in early (Yeah OT) so I can can drive to the edge of the world to take a drug test. In itself no biggy, if they can't get readings from over 15 years ago, I'm OK, but shortly after I got off the phone with my Foreman, I caught the news and they were talking about the illegal immigrant protest for tomorrow in downtown L.A.

For the last two weeks there has been one of those fold-up road barricades sitting in the center divider of the street I work on warning about the street being closed. I was going to work at night and couldn't read all of it until a few days ago when there was nobody behind me and I could go slow and point my headlights at it. Yep, they were closing the street so the illegals could take a day off of work and protest that they had jobs.

Now, with this drug test, I would get the pleasure of driving through this crap, not once, but twice. I immediately called work to get directions and said I'd just go straight from home...nope gotta pick up the form signed by the Foreman.

We finally worked it out that I can pick up the form at our other site which is hopefully far enough away to be out of the clutter zone.

A couple of months ago there was a mini illegal rally and I watched a guy across the street selling American flags right and left and I'll admit, except for one asshole driving up and down the street in his '64 Cheby lowrider laying on his horn (obnoxious bastard) and waving a Mexi flag, I didn't see many, but that one was small and planned at the last minute. I'm waiting to see what tomorrow's looks like.

My hopes aren't high. Between the flashes of red realizing my commute was going to be a real bitch, some jerk off activist was explaining that the reason all these people were here was due to a conspiracy between "Big Corporations" the U.S., and the gov'ts of their home countries. The answer to this was for the U.S. gov't (not their home gov't) to create more jobs so the "Big Corporations" couldn't exploit the people.

May Day from Wikipedia:

The date consequently became established as an anarchist and socialist holiday during the 20th century, and in these circles it is often known as International Workers' Day or Labour Day. In this form, May Day has become an international celebration of the social and economic achievements of the working class and labor movement. [emp. - mine]

Vegas-Why I Drive

Well here goes. I said I was going to post about my Las Vegas trip, and damn it, I’m gonna do it. Because I have a lot to expound on this, I’m going to break it into three installments: This one will deal with why I chose to drive to get there, then some observations on gambling and getting around town and finally a post on the drive itself.

I use to love to fly - but not now - not if the trip can be driven in 6 hours or less. I have two airports to choose from: Burbank and LAX. Burbank is very close, but it’s small and they put a surcharge on top of the normal airfare for the convenience. LAX is a bit of a drive, and requires either a heavy sedative or heavy drinking to deal with their setup.

Either airport I choose, I have to get there, which means either get an airport shuttle, or use long term parking – basically a push when time and money are factored. On top of the just getting there, they want you there 2 hours before your flight leaves. S0, with driving to and sitting there forever, you’ve already used up three hours and haven’t even left town.

Shall we mention “security”? You are not allowed to take half the stuff you need in your carry on, so now you are faced with the choice of going shopping when you first arrive at your destination and then chucking the stuff you just bought before going home, or checking your bag and waiting the year or so it takes for them to offload it and get it to the baggage carousel. Both are sucky options and more time, money and effort than it’s worth.

Flight time: one hour in the air – this does not include the planes taxi time.

If going to Vegas (275 miles), it’s taken one hour longer to fly than to drive without rushing. If I were going to Phoenix (380 miles)I’ve saved, maybe, an hour, but in both places I’m still at the airport, I still haven’t gotten to the hotel or house and once at those final destinations, I have no easy or inexpensive way to get around.

Now you may bring up the fact that Vegas just put in a monorail system. Yes, they did, but it doesn’t go to the airport and it cost $15 for a one day pass. Cheaper than taking taxis, but still way overpriced. Also, it goes nowhere close to The Palms our favorite casino, which is located on the other side of the freeway from The Strip

And of course there is no way to Boulder Station which is about 5 miles east of The Strip. Yeah, Boulder Station caters to older clientèle, but hey, we are old now, and this is a good place to go during the day. It has a good movie theater, thousands of machines, lots of TV screens for sports and a payoff rate that is fair enough that you can usually play for hours without losing a lot. This is also one of the few casinos that I have left with more money than I walked in with (once, and not much more).