L.A.- Crapper again

High School in South Los Angeles Locked Down after Fight
Last Edited: Friday, 09 May 2008, 10:31 PM PDT
Created: Friday, 09 May 2008, 1:37 PM PDT

Police were called in after an "incident" at Locke High School on Friday afternoon. Some students were taken into custody.
Police at Locke High School


South Los Angeles -- A fight involving African-American and Hispanic students at a South Los Angeles high school resulted in four arrests but no major injuries, a school official said on Friday.

The brawl broke out at around 1 p.m. among Locke High School students who had apparently been talking about fighting for some [time].

So from 1 p.m. on, all the students in the school were deprived of education, because the non-racist blacks couldn't get along with the non-racist mexicans

It's made so much difference now that it's called South Los Angeles as opposed to South-Central L.A...You know it was just the name that made the area dangerous.

FETE

Miley Cyrus

Why do I care about Miley Cyrus? I really don't. To me she is just the newest preteen fad. I have never seen her program nor listened to her music.

My kid is 19.

I had to live through "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and his, since past, love of "wrestling" (not while I'm home and if I open the front door and I see more than the channel changing, there will be consequences).

I served my time in hell.

Miley, who is only 15, cannot be held responsible for this debacle. Nor do I think her parents should take the complete blame. This child was put into a situation, with adult supervision that was suppose to watch out for her and got snowed by the media image industry into they were just advancing Miley's career.

Annie Liebowitz as photographer, for Vanity Fair? A little research should have told the Cyrus' that either Mom, Dad, or both should have handle this session.

Billy Ray has said he regrets what happened and from what little I've seen of interviews with him and his feelings of family, I'm willing to give him this one.

Being this affects me little, I think if the parents cool their jets, we'll just remember her as this.

A Musical Interlude

If I had to pick my favorite between David Bowie or Pink Floyd I couldn't do it. "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Ziggy Stardust", "Aladdin Sane" are albums that I can put on, no matter my mood, and be completely into the music on the first rack.

With that said, I'm going to pick two Bowie songs that aren't on either of the albums mentioned above.

First: Heroes



Second: Cat People (Putting Out Fire) this is overlaid on the open credits of the (excellent)movie but it works.



The soundtrack version is infinitely better than than the one on "Let's Dance" IMHO also because I rule all here, I wouldn't want to deprive you of the live version.



I've seen Bowie live three times, and if you haven't, you've missed one of the greatest performers of of generation.

Why Is L.A. Going Down The Crapper?

First I'm going to point out that I don't "live" in L.A. City. I live in Glendale, north of L.A. and I live in the La Crescenta Valley on the northern edge of Glendale. I can't vote for the asshats in L.A. city, but I've worked in downtown L.A. for 30 years, so what happens there affects me.

Second, the asshat in this piece comes from a line of asshats. We first had Kenneth Hahn (Supervisor from 1947-1992), followed by Gordon Hahn, who replaced him on the Los Angeles city council, while another, John, was assistant county clerk. His son James K. Hahn was elected Mayor of Los Angeles in 2001. His daughter, Janice Hahn, currently sits on the City Council, representing San Pedro and Wilmington.

Janice is the one we'll focus on here.

I lived in San Pedro 30 years ago, still with my parents, and it was a city of contrasts. I lived on cliffs overlooking the ocean, but drove a school bus through some of the most gang infested parts of the that area.

This piece by the local Fox news station covers how Ms. Hahn has set up a program that puts convicted gang bangers on the city payroll. (It's a two parter, so it goes awhile)

Video: Gang Intervention Money

I particularly like the part where the guy gets busted for being someplace he had an injunction telling him to never go their again, gets busted for being there and Janice's office bails him out. Not to mention that during his interview he keeps saying that he works for Janice Hahn.

The City Of Los Angeles is now paying the criminals of the city to do something about the rampant crime. And there are no guideline or instructions attached, just, I guess, hinted at goals.

This woman is willing to pay thugs a "city gov't" income with taxpayer money and have no explicit restrictions or expectations of what the job entails. She just expects because she slipped them some cash, they won't take it an run as long as they can while doing the same as they did before.

Liberalism is a mental disease.

Plant Rights

Yep, you read that correctly, the Swiss are debating the morality of harming flora.

A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring "account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms." No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants," is enough to short circuit the brain.

A "clear majority" of the panel adopted what it called a "biocentric" moral view, meaning that "living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive." Thus, the panel determined that we cannot claim "absolute ownership" over plants and, moreover, that "individual plants have an inherent worth." This means that "we may not use them just as we please, even if the plant community is not in danger, or if our actions do not endanger the species, or if we are not acting arbitrarily."

I am now starting to believe the human race is on the verge of extinction.

This goes to 11

While cruising around today, I ran across this site which reminded me of why "This Is Spinal Tap" is one of the funniest movies ever. My boy and I use to use this saying as code to each other when talking to someone who has left common sense behind.

Windfall Profits?

OK, here it comes. Just yesterday I was bitching about nothing to write about and what happens...one flies down the pipe.

Profits Of Doom?

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, May 01, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Profits: Exxon Mobil's first-quarter earnings of $10.9 billion, up 17% from a year earlier, are stirring outrage in Washington. Some are calling such profits "obscene." What a sad lack of understanding of economics.

I said it a few times before, I kept hearing these whispers of "Windfall Profit Taxes" being imposed again. I had just started working in the oil industry when Jimmy Peanutbrain tried this back in the early '80's. It didn't work then and it won't work now. "The Congressional Research Service has analysed that the windfall profit tax brought in $80 billion in extra revenues for the United States government, which was far less than the projected $393 billion. Also, domestic oil production by oil producers was said to be lowered."

Case in point: Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Like her rival, Barack Obama, she's pushing a massive "windfall profit" tax on those "greedy" oil companies. "There is something seriously wrong with our economy when Exxon's record $11 billion in quarterly profits are seen as a disappointment by Wall Street," Clinton said Thursday. "This is truly Dick Cheney's wonderland."

No, what's seriously wrong is that politicians such as Clinton can cynically manipulate public opinion to enact disastrous policies.

[all emphasis: mine]

Believe me, it will be disastrous. They know what happened last time they tried this, so I'm fairly sure that if elected, they won't really push this too hard...either that, or they are insane. (They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.)

Our free-market economy is built on profit. Higher profits mean more jobs, higher incomes, more investment in equipment and people, higher standards of living. Yes, profits are the engine for all of this — and that includes the profits of "Big Oil."

By signaling that supply is scarce, higher profits encourage more production. Except, that is, when Congress through its inept lawmaking stands in the way. And that's the case now with the oil industry.Our free-market economy is built on profit. Higher profits mean more jobs, higher incomes, more investment in equipment and people, higher standards of living. Yes, profits are the engine for all of this — and that includes the profits of "Big Oil."

Congress seems almost constantly at war with the oil companies — slapping them with taxes and pillorying their CEOs while ignoring the fact that higher profits lead to more exploration, drilling and development.

Why is this? Having a domestic oil supply is what made this country grow and, over the last 100+ years, show the rest of the world what people can accomplished, given the means to develop an idea, manufacture it, and get it to a population spread over huge distances and still be worth the effort (profit).

If anyone is to blame for our current energy mess, it's Congress. At least 20 billion barrels of oil sit untapped in Alaska and another 30 billion lie offshore. Such sources that could help satisfy U.S. demand for years to come. Yet, Congress has put them out of bounds.

ANWAR has been blocked for years...because of the way oil was developed back in the 1890's. I've seen pictures of the "Old Downtown L.A. Oil Field" (where I started, see pic above), in a book, and the chapter's title was "Oil In The Streets Of Los Angeles". There where lakes of oil right next to the houses and wells gushing when brought in, but the industry doesn't work that way anymore.

At the price of oil, especially now-a-days, you don't just let that stuff just dump on the ground. The industry has really evolved over the last century and they understand and take (overly regulated) precautions so that doesn't happen any more.

Instead, Congress scapegoats oil profits. In reality, according to Ernst & Young, from 1992 to 2006 the U.S. oil industry spent $1.25 trillion on long-term investment vs. profits of $900 billion.

Truth is, oil industry profits are in line with the rest of American industry. In 2007, a record year, they earned 8.3 cents per dollar of sales. Beverage companies and cigarette makers, by contrast, earned 19.1 cents. Drug makers, 18.4 cents. Indeed, all manufacturers, 8.9 cents on average, made more than "Big Oil."

I know...I know, they've put extra ("sin") taxes on liquor and cigarettes, but did that "punish" the corporations for their perceived windfall profits....NO!! It only increased the consumers price of the product more. These taxes do not affect the profit of the company, just the amount you pay.

Besides, we've tried windfall profits taxes before, in the early 1980s, and they were an utter failure. As the Congressional Research Service found, revenues produced for the government were nearly 75% below what was expected. Meanwhile, , while oil imports surged 16%.

That's just poor policy, and even worse economics.

Oh. come on, give 'em a chance...They'll make this formula work this time.

NOTE: domestic oil output fell 8%

Due to this tax, for independents, it wasn't making money so they just shut it down.

Remember: Oil companies don't really pay "windfall profit" taxes, anyway. You do. Some 50 million Americans today own oil company stock, either directly or through 401(k)s and mutual funds. Don't be suckered: "Windfall profits" taxes come right out of your retirement account, not out of the oil industry's business.

Oh sure, Big Oil's profits are up. But so are the taxes they pay. In 2006, that came to $90 billion — up 334% in just four years.

As to the added tax, I covered that, however, did you notice that the taxes that they pay under the current system is up 334% in just four years.

Note: Those that were able restarted idled wells because they could make some money off producing. Nobody is going to pay $1.50 to deliver a commodity that you pay $1.00 for.

This is how Clinton-style populism works. It starts with ignorance and ends with serious damage to our economy.

I've never understood how anyone that has held a job and had the slightest grasp of the cost to keep a company going and still get enough return to make the hours worth the effort, unless you're Union.

Oil prices aren't high because profits are up; they're high because we don't have enough oil. By clamping down on drilling, refusing to move forward on nuclear energy and hitting producers with punitive taxes, Congress is doing all it can to ensure we don't have enough in the future.

I'm all for getting us off dependency on Middle East, Venezuelan, Mexican, even Canadian oil. I favor Nuclear myself. If the Frogs can handle it, I think we can.

If we started drilling today, it would be almost 12 years for ANWAR to be producing. I bet we could build quit a few nuclear plants in that time frame.

If you want to keep paying $100+ per barrel for oil, I'm not going to complain, you've guaranteed my income.

8.3% profit...damn them.

The Muse Is Missing

I've had nothing lately.

Global Wormering has had me pissed off lately, the temps here have gone from in the 100's a few days ago to the mid 70's this week, so I have to admit, the climate does change.

I thought the illegal rallies yesterday would get me het up, but with the anemic turnout here in L.A., I lost steam.

The only thing I can give you is this song that has stuck in my head for the last week. Why it's there I can't say, but maybe by posting it it'll move on.

History

I lived in this house for three years. The rent was cheap and it was really close to work...I had an oil well in my front yard. (by the way I lived across the street from Belmont High School and about four blocks from the new Belmont Center)

I lived in the fourth house down from the left:



This house was built for the foreman that managed the field I worked in 70 years later. It had, under many years of paint, mahogany baseboards, ceiling trim (10ft. ceiling), doors and fireplace mantle. Also, if you notice they built the house for the SoCal weather, hence the steeply sloped roof so the snow will slide off.

It was freezing in the (SoCal) winter and ungodly hot in the summer. It had no closet space to speak of, just enough to hang your Sunday suit and a few other things, jackets hung in the entryway.

I loved that place. I could walk to the store at any hour, even though it was in the middle of the Diamond Street gang territory, because, while they didn't know me, they knew I worked for the oil company that had a well on their friends house property. Our trucks were never bothered, and our sites never graffiti'ed, outside of occasional outsider gangs "pissing on the wall".

The best thing about the house was the parlor. It was small, about 8 x 10, but it had a 10 foot ceiling. It was lathe and plaster and I had a new upright piano and lots of time. The acoustics were great for playing for yourself as the whole room filled and seem to direct the sound right back to you without echo.

The few years I lived there were worth every dollar my parents spent on piano lessons.

The few years I lived there were worth every minute.

Update: Just wanted to mention that I was single when I lived there, I moved out and into the suburbs of "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" because I was ready to get married and Downtown Central L.A. was not the place to convince a lady you're worth a shit.

Also, the picture was taken from the derrick of a well I worked on. The derrick was long gone, and it was a bitty D6 beam unit, but still there and pumping away for over 90 years.

Belmont Learning Center Opens

And it came in at of cost of just $400 million.

When it was slated to be opened back in 1998 it was the most expensive HS ever built. However, the LAUSD and certain political activists, decided that being there was oil nearby and earthquake faults, the complex shouldn't be allowed to open.

I worked that oil field for twenty years, and it wasn't a gas producing field...there was NO methane problem. The problem they will now face is that being the field is no longer reducing the pressure that these wells were relieving (and there were over 1300 holes punched into this field that where just "kinda" abandoned) in about 5 to 10 years the city will see gas build-up and oil seeps so that the Temple-Beaudry district will resemble the La Brea Tar Pits.

As far as earthquake faults... well we live in So Cal, if you don't live on one, you live close enough to it that it's probably going to fuck up your day.

Reading The Constitution

It's something I now realize I should have done years ago. Oh, of course we read it High School, but at the time it was just another assignment to get through, and the classroom discussion was minimal.

I bought the Heritage Guide to the Constitution almost two years ago, I started to read it once and got sidetracked, but about two months ago I was desperate for something to read and I picked it up again.

This is an excellent reference book. It takes each Article,Section and Clause and cites debates of the Founders on the issue and interpretations and rulings from the three branches of gov't (where applicable).

I decided to read no more that one clause a day, I'm up to "Presentment of Resolutions"(Article 1, Section 7, Clause 3). This has given me time to actually try to digest the thoughts and arguments and internalize them.

The men were giants. There were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists who came up with a document that the states could agree on, balancing the power of the National Gov't with the power of the the individual States and restricting the power of each branch of the gov't so that no one branch could control the process.

I'm still dealing with Congress and have the President, Judiciary, Military, Treasury to go, not to metions getting to the Amendments.

I also have a copy of "The Federalist" that I bought at the same time, and only got through about 1/2 of the "Editors Introduction" (it's 84 pages). I'm now really looking forward to getting back to it so I can compare my approvals and misgivings about this document.

Now I could use recommendations of books similar to "The Federalist" that covers "The Bill of Rights".

I couldn't come up with a heading for this entry because I really don't know how I feel. I'm 54 today, and I'm torn between the joy of having lived this long with all the idiot decisions I've made over all those years, and the realization that because of those decisions I'm not where I thought I should be.

My major joy is my son. He has grown up into a compassionate and moral man. At 19, he doesn't really have a pointed goal of what he wants to do, but he's not accusing anyone or anything of stopping him from achieving it, and I would do all in my ability to help him achieve is goals.

I"m very conflicted on this anniversary. I feel I've done good in my life, but feel that there is so much more that should have been done.

Saving My Past - Part II

A long long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while.

(Don Mclean , American Pie)

A long, long time ago I got a turntable that plugged into my computer. I was so excited that I was now able to save all my albums that I ran out and bought a 100 gig drive that would store nothing but music. Over a year, and I hadn't even filled 8% of that drive.

I got off work early today by swapping a couple hours with my relief that he needed yesterday (by the way Dennis you owe me $1 due to shift differential), and I got an urge to listen to stuff I hadn't heard in forever, so I figured if I was going to listen, might as well record.

I started out just flipping through my collection, but that only lasted for the first two albums, now I'm looking for specific LP's and being I've had cats for many, many years, the bastards liked to sharpen their claws on that nice wall of cardboard. That means that half the ends of the record sleeves are unreadable and I found out that my kid liked to listen to the records, just wasn't to meticulous about filing them back where he got them.

It seems that whatever particular album I'm looking for isn't where it should be, that means flipping through everything and that leads to "OH WOW" I haven't heard that in ages so I'll pull it out and get to it after these others.

So far today I've listened to Bowie, ELP, King Crimson, Lee Michaels, Zappa, Stevie Wonder and have The Tubes, Springsteen, Iron Butterfly, Doors and Led Zeppelin sitting at my feet ready to go.

One thing that has amazed me is the condition of my records, for being anywhere up to 40 years old is that a majority of them are without major clicks, pops or scratches, not perfect, but as close as a normal person could keep them while enjoying them.

I've always loved my music and have always tried to take care of the discs. No multi-platter disc dropping turntables, dust them off before playing and put them away in the dust sleeve and jacket when done.

Another album is coming to a close, so gotta go.

Drugs!!!

Had to go yesterday to get my "random" drug test. Outside of the fact that I had to drive 16 miles to a site right next to the entrance to LAX, it really wasn't a big thing. I haven't done drugs in a long, long time, hell, I'll try to tough out a headache before I'll take an aspirin. With my consumption of beer at times...well I feel sometimes you just have to pay the piper to play.

The reason for the snide quotes around "random" is due to a mid-life crisis, or some other reason like I just felt like it, but for the last 7 to 8 months, I've let my hair and beard grow. I now have a full beard and a really cute ponytail.

I'll post pics sometime before I mow it all down because I'm thinking it will most likely be clean shaven and 1/2"(max)on the hair.

I did this as an experiment to determine if the hair growth of hippies caused any of the brain defects that seem to crop up with the look. It doesn't seem to have any effect on my generally pissed off view of the world in the sense that I despise Commies, Socialists and all the posers that believe that "Big gov't is stealing our freedoms...but, if elected, I will make sure gov't cures your ills if you pass this law".

I really believe that I got called in to "piss in a cup"...again, is that my foreman seems to think I'm a threat to his job. I DO NOT want his job. The foreman doesn't do much except dump the blame on the Operators for things not working right, so I just sit back and wonder how long the owner can delude himself that there are 7 people that don't know their ass from a hot rock and maybe, just maybe, someone needs to come up with an actual business plan.

My job this weekend was suppose to paint a tank, but I pointed out (on Thursday)that we had no rollers to complete the job. I was told there had to be rollers out there as he had just bought some (4, about a month ago and used). The foreman didn't come in on Friday, so I now get to assign jobs to myself (no problem), but on Monday, I'll get bitched at for not doing the job HE wanted done.

I've managed a small oil company...when we were getting around $6.00 a barrel way back in the '90's...we'd lose money in the short run, but with 4 generations of experience, knew that it would cycle and eventually come out ahead.

If there is a plan for Monday, outside of complaining about the tanks not getting painted, I'd like to see or hear about it

Maybe I should start using drug again, that would give me a reason for MY failure to get the job done.

Nope, I think I'll fight it out to the end.

O.K., It's Just Hot!!

Over the last three days it's gone from 72 to 92 degrees. I know I live in what is really a desert and I expect high temps, but this 20 degree jump in two days just doesn't give you much of a chance to adjust.

Thursday, I was doing some labor intensive work, and it was pleasant, I didn't mined much at all. Today I was just washing down an area with a high pressure hose and was sweating so much that after about 15 minutes I couldn't see through my glasses so much perspiration had dripped and dried on the lenses.

Maybe there is something to thing Global Wormering thing...or it could be that being the last few summers have been fairly mild, we're due for a real bastard of a heat wave this year.

No Taxation Without Representation

Wow! Here it is April 10th and I have a feeling something is hanging over my head that needs to be done. Oh, yeah...I'm right on it, it'll be done tomorrow, if I can figure out where I filed my W-2.

I was watching Glenn Beck tonight and saw where the top 10% earners pay 70% of taxes and the top 1% pay 40% of that. Sounds fair to me.

My boy, who is trying to figure out what he wants to do with himself, is working a crappy job. I did his taxes a while ago and along with getting the 300 some-odd dollars they took away in taxes, he is entitled to another 300 dollars.

How did our tax code get so screwed up that when you pay taxes, you can get it back, PLUS, you get back more? I can understand when someone is hovering around minimum wage getting back what they paid in, but to say they get back what they paid, and then Double it is insane socialism.

Now, on top of that, he will get another 600 dollars back as an "Economic Stimulus Payment".

Someone who paid around $340 in taxes, gets a return of $1250, and we wonder why the country runs a deficit.

L.A.'s Moratorium On Vilolence

From the L.A. Times April 4, 2008

You'd better not kill anybody after 6:01 p.m. today, or you'll really rile the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. It has passed a resolution declaring a 40-hour moratorium on violence, starting at a time that marks to the minute the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr..

How'd it go? 3 dead and 18 wounded.

Pretty typical numbers for Los Angeles, guess the gangbangers didn't get the word.

I'm Trying

I came by here today, like I do every day, but I haven't listened to the news or had a chance to cruise the web in the last couple of days, sometimes life just gets busy and you have to deal with it.

I'm just feeling lazy and I used up so much energy writing this post over at the Rott. I just decided to copy and paste it here. I don't think the Emperor has a copyright clause that anything posted there belongs to him.

Santa Ana teacher arrested after students find gun in her class

HT: LC Intellectual Conservative

A Santa Ana elementary school teacher was arrested after students found a handgun and ammunition in the drawer of a supply cabinet of her classroom, officials said Thursday.

Jayne DeArmond, 51, a third-grade teacher at Diamond Elementary School, was arrested on charges of felony possession of a firearm on a campus and misdemeanor child endangerment after students discovered the unloaded handgun and ammunition about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday,

Perhaps this particular person should be charged...third grade...unloaded handgun and ammunition, any 8 year old can figure out how the two go together...not to mention, an unloaded handgun is not going to do any good in a crisis. If she really needed the gun, it needs to be loaded and in her immediate control.

Students were moved to another classroom after the gun and ammunition were found.

Good thing, you never know when those cartridges will jump out of the box, into the mag, and chamber themselves to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting populous.

"It's dangerous not only for the school, but for the whole community here,"

Yeah right, after spontaneously loading itself, the gun could run through the neighborhood wasting all who cross it's path...or the third grader likes the way people fall down when he says bang.

Counseling has been made available to students and staff,

And the school district social workers are able to justify their jobs for another year by convincing these children that they were traumatized by the thought that they were near a firearm.

Students had access to the cabinet where the gun was kept,

This was STOOPID, and the teacher should be hed accountable for this breach of common sense.

The students who found the gun told an instructional aide, who told Pelasky. She notified school police, who confiscated the weapon within minutes,

Sounds like the rugrats actually do listen to grownups sometimes. They did what was right. I wonder if they've ever had an assembly by Eddie Eagle?

After conducting interviews, police took DeArmond into custody. Authorities said they also searched DeArmond's car.

G-d, if she had one gun, she must have an arsenal stored close by.

DeArmond was released late Wednesday on her own promise to appear in court. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Guess not.

School police will be conducting an initial internal investigation of the incident, which will be followed by an administrative investigation into how the gun arrived on campus.

My guess...the teacher brought it.

In a letter sent to homes Thursday afternoon, Pelasky reassured parents that "our school is a safe haven for our students."

Except for the facts that...if anything happens...you get to wait 5 to 20 minutes for the police to arrive and set up a perimeter, then try to figure out what's going on in the building, then execute a plan...or, if the teacher felt the need for a gun close at hand, it should have been in her possession, loaded and out of "little prying eyes".

Damn...I Think I'm Getting Old

It's April again. I've almost completed one more cycle around the sun in a couple of weeks and I'm staring to think that gravity has gotten the upper hand on me. I'm not just grunting when I stand up, I groan when I sit down.

It's not just the pains that I expected at this point from growing up...motorcycle "accidents"...Cadillac v 450 Honda, dirt bike riding (I can make that jump), hiking (I can make that jump), all the way back to jumping off the roof of a house onto a concrete patio (I was 8 and only minor damage ensued), because I knew I was invincible.

Well, maybe I am invincible, but I ache.

At the moment it seems I'm either trying to stretch out some bastard knotty muscle, or trying to find the back-scratcher so I can get to that fraking iItch in the middle of my back.

I figured it out today, I really do walk at minimum 5 miles a day at work. During these miles, I have to bend waaay over and around to reach valves, tighten leaky things and read gauges somewhat accurately that can be anywhere from mid-calf level to 8 feet in the air.

My company is on the verge of making a comeback, and I'm trying to use all my abilities to get us over the edge, but I get no respect from my "foreman" and two of the guys (out of four) don't give a shit about anything but having the "job" to come to.

The other guy seems to think that (even though he's been there a decade) that things will change and we'll get the basic tools and supplies we need.

Mwhaahaaahaa!!

I do know that the company has massive debts (due to lack of maintenance), but at $104 a barrel, when the industry ideal was $30, I think there may be money to mitigate some of our dilemma, or at least correct existing problems to stave off future disasters.

I wonder how many of my aches are because of my age, or how much I hate my job?