Freaks...

So... I am into creativity and writing these past few days... It's a vent I guess when I spend 72 hours with a 3 year old. God I love him and his temper.

Today, I did not need to be creative. It happened write in front of me.

I flew into New Mexico this evening. I got into my hotel. My room... Fired up the TV. Checked email.

Then I heard some commotion. Some foreign language and...

You know those doors between hotel rooms? The ones on the inside so if you had your kids with you, you could put them in there to make one big room for whatever reason you would want to: In Albuquerque, next to the freeway...

So the commotion, the foreign language and it was not Spanish and not Asian so automatically it was Arabic or Farsi, right...

Any how... these dudes undid their locks on their side and started to fuck with my door.

I am all, "Hello?" "Hello?"

Nothing... they really sound like they can get in and shit so I finally went to my door and pounded it yelling, "Dude WHAT THE FUCK??"

What's funny in hindsight, the screwing with my lock did not immediately just stop, it sort of subsided, gradually.

I heard some foreign speak. Then a whole lot of disagreements. Then a few "Fucks" and then they left and haven't been back.

So hear is what I think:

The were looking to scam for a second room and figured they would see if they could get another door open. They did all they could but ran into Steve on the otherside yelling, "What the Fuck??"

Freaks...

Hummer: Now Made in China

Apparently Hummer is being sold to a Chinese company named Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd.

While I sadly, miss my old Hummer that I had before the Cayenne (that thing would drive over anything and everything) I am suspect of the brand lasting in America.

Unless they take my new marketing idea!



HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Shit...

I didn't think anything of it. Sirens in the morning outside my home. I lived in the urban area of near downtown Sacramento. It was not uncommon to hear a siren, or see a helicopter search light or anything.

Well, this morning... right before sunrise... or after... I don't know, I didn't sleep due to stress in my job and life anyway, I heard sirens. I thought nothing of it. It was a siren...

Well... it sucks. Some poor little kid was walking to the bus stop to take that long journey to school I did so many years ago up here in the sticks. Someone in a car I guess didn't see the kid in the street or whatever and ran the poor kid over. The kid went to the hospital and later died of his injuries.

My town is beyond rural... with like 200 people. There is the tiny gated community I live in and this is where it all happened. It sucks because, I guess because there are so few people out here... and even that I did not know the kid or really see the incident, it makes you think that we are not always safe no matter where we live or work or whatever we do with our lives. Sometimes if it is our time, it is just our time, period.

You can read about it here and here. (On another topic, what is with the comment spam on the last article)

Perfect Weekend!

You could not ask for better weather out here this weekend. It was close to 70, no wind... lots and lots of sun.

It was a lot of fun.

I took a drive....


Well it wasn't in the 70's the whole time. It was down right cold in the morning. We went to the Porsche parts place called Part's Heaven in Hayward. I had been meaning to get down and get a few exterior pieces for the car that I had either lost or they fell off the car over the years. I got new plastic lug nut caps and finally replaced the jack hole cover on the passenger sign. That is the dirtiest window you will ever see on one of my cars. I don't like washing this car because of the rust factor. It was awesome. We went down to Hayward then back up through Livermore than into Lodi for a party. Mostly in a T-Shirt the whole time.

Stevenot Winery

This morning we said, "Ah... what the heck... Let's go for a ride again...." So we went up to Starbucks then over to Twisted Oak for some wine. Then we took off up to Sheep Ranch from Murphys. It was warm so we popped the top off and did some hard riding through the hills. The car ran great all the way. Very, very fast... smooth handling... no issues. I have past up the car in age...:)

Heading into Sheep Ranch, which I think has like 45 people there... I expected to encounter, well some sheep...
Unfortunately all I could find was this field full of liberals. Well... we sped through Sheep Ranch down over to Railroad Flat near where Charles Ng and Leonard Lake killed all of those people and buried them in the 80's. It's one of the few things people know Calaveras County for.

Another unfortunate thing... I didn't stop and take more pictures. We jetted down from Railroad Flat through Glencoe and over to Mokolumne Hill. The locals are nice. All the roads have pretty much a rural speed limit of 55 mph and that is cool but a lot of these roads you would be an idiot if you went that fast. However, I can get on it and get down those hills quickly... never really leaving from 2nd and 3rd gear. The old folks actually got out of the way.

After getting through Moke Hill, I got on Paloma Rd and headed down through Campo Seco back over to my house. I actually need to get some pictures of Campo Seco so I can actually truly show my readers there actually is a Chinese Ghost Town up here.

What a fun ride... Perfect weather, not cold and not warm... Just perfect. Smoked a lot of turns and had perfect control. And my little car ran great. I could have sat in bed all weekend. I could have sat at home on the couch or finished hanging shelves in my garage but why? Nothing was more relaxing before a big travel week.

Saw Gran Torino too... Racing cars and Eastwood movies... Now that is living.

Add Coffee As Needed...

Wow... it has been two whole weeks since I moved out on my own. The dead silence of the new neighborhood is so relaxing. The quiet around here is relieving. Yet I have been gone 5 of the days on the road.

I got in from Kansas at 1 AM yesterday and it was my first full day in my home office. I got a lot done. The doors were wide open all day because it is unusually warm here right now. The expected high is 78 today which is absolutely crazy for it being November already. You would expect 59 and foggy with lows around 39 and a chance of rain every week. I am a weather freak because of my career path.

I get to enjoy Elijah this weekend. He is coming down and we are going to have some fun. I need to go find some train place or something to take him to for fun. Jamestown has a whole train thing so I think I am gonna head up there. Or maybe up to Placerville (so I can sneak a wine taste or two in as well). Should be fun stuff, just the two of us hanging out.

I bought a huge bed for him that I still need to put together for him from IKEA.

I have been feeling great pain wise until today. Hard to move my left arm easy and I am limping hard. Plus I am out of medication because I thought I was needing less and less. Suddenly... WHAM!!! Big pain.

The Most Hilarious 10 Minutes Ever!!!

IT Guy Vs Dumb Employees - Watch more free videos

It's like Stan from South Park working IT.

This Blog Helps At Least 15 People Everyday Install Their IKEA Faucet

Muse

Everyday, my IKEA faucet posts get hits. Multiple hits for it by the same people hours apart too. It's a fun hobby reading my statcounter to see who is coming in and where from. It's funny reading the weird searches and the people hoping to glimpse Jessica Biel naked or something off of one of my meaningless tags at the bottom of each post.

I did a lot today. Washed the car (like that takes effort). I repaired the stair on the backyard staircase that has been broken for the last year or two. I was in the Porsche and near Home Depot and I was like, "What's 3 bucks for piece of 2X6?" Getting it in the car was fun. I miss having a truck to haul shit around. But life goes on...

My big project today: Re-stringing the Takemine 12 String Jumbo acoustic guitar. What a bitch this always is. I wanted to start playing it again. I stopped playing it because of the the pain in my wrist and arm and stuff. It is hard to grab those strings and play. But, I have been living lately to live life through it. I just look funny limping and shit with my numb and tingly left side when I get out of a car.

The guitar was a bigger endeavor than I thought. I was sitting on the couch staring at the guitar hanging on the wall while watching Tiger's run in the Master's today. Nothing like HD TV and golf!! Holy crap! But I figured since I was sitting there I could at least start twirling the tuners until the 11 unbroken strings on my guitar came off. I hadn't touched the thing in a year or two.

Once I got the strings off I found my new packet of strings and started twirling the tuners one by one to get the new strings on. Then I got to the high G string and snap!!! Son of a bitch, I thought. The string is so feeble. I bought 11 gauge strings for my 12 string but that one string is a .008 string and it is so weak. My tuner on the guitar is not working at all but I am pretty good at tuning a guitar by ear. I must have went a little too high. I got pissed and set the guitar aside. I picked up my classical and started strumming out of frustration, playing some STP and some DMB, lol.

Elijah came down to watch the end of the golf tournament with me and after it was over, I decided to take Elijah to Mecca the Guitar Center so I can buy a 9 gauge string to replace my 8 gauge string I had broken. Elijah likes to point at my guitars and say Da da or papa and stuff. I decided to show him a room of like 300-400 guitars and see what he would do.

Typical Guitar Center... Lots of people that don't know shit about guitars and I am not necessarily talking about the workers. There is always one kid though at Guitar Center that annoys the living shit out of me. It's this stereotype... a 19-20 year old kid, usually not white but Hispanic or Asian (No Tina, not Arnold), with bleached tips in his hair and a lip piercing... black nail polish, hunkered behind a Marshall stack with a Blue Ibanez guitar shredding the same over played metal riff over and over. No one can hear in the store either with this fool playing. Anyway, Elijah's eyes seem to follow the kid as I did a lap around the room looking at guitars.

Once I got bored from staring at the $3500 Gibson acoustic, I headed to check out to buy my string. I also checked on a new tuner. They had this clip on one bought. It clips onto the headstock and it has no mic. It just picks up the vibrations on the guitar or bass or whatever string instrument you play. It worked right the first time too!! So I buy it because I needed it and the as the guy is checking me out he goes, "So do you want to buy the life time warranty for it?"

I start laughing. The guy wonders why I laugh. I pointed to the box where it says, "Lifetime warranty in the US and Canada included". He still wants me to purchase the little 15 dollar replacement thing... Whatever... NOT!

I got back home and installed my new string. The tuner was pretty cool and I got the 12 string already to go. Then I played "Learning to Fly", so now I truly can sound like Tom Petty. To test the tuner and my hearing, I clamped it to the classical guitar to check my ear. Nearly perfect tuning. I like this new thing though because it seems to be really accurate. Some of my guitars, like my Ovation, the B string sounds weird so I always flatten it a little. This is the tuner I bought... It's pretty cool, I think it is more accurate than the built in ones or the ones you plug into because it is basing itself on the vibrating wood of the guitar. It's pretty dope!

The Zen of Porsche Driving

Elijah is sick again... I get to watch him tomorrow. He has an ear infection again... No seizure this time. I took a break today and went for a drive.

I fired up the 914 and cruised the foothills.

I started out going into Ione. I went by the old Rancho Seco "nucular" power plant. It is kind of crazy because there are all these vineyards out there now and I'd be scared to drink wine from those grapes. It was fun though humming along in the Porsche. I kept the top on and I just listened to the sound of the wind blowing through the window. I passed a bright green 914 in Ione. I waved at the guy I thought might have been the owner. He sure gawked and mine. It is really bright with the orange roof on versus when it is off.

Once I got through Ione, I turned up 88 and headed into Jackson. Not the Jackson from the Johnny Cash song but the gold rush town in Amador County. I have always had a strong attraction to Ione and Jackson. For example, I remember going to Ione on vacation when I was three and I got new shoes because my old ones got muddy. I remember them vividly because they had stop and go on them and one was red and the other was green. I was 3 when I got those. Jackson has different memories. Again on vacation from the bay area, we'd go to Jackson while camping to do laundry or get donuts or site see or whatever. It was fun coming into down. They still have an active gold mine and all that going on. I have other memories of Jackson too. It was the place you went to hang out at in high school. My family liked vacationing so much up there, we moved there 20 years ago to the lake down the road where we vacationed.

I stopped, regrettably at Taco Bell for lunch. It's been kicking my ass ever since. I ate my food staring at the only car wash in town. I was wondering why they were not open on such a beautiful Sunday. You'd think it would be a popular day to be open (like the 2nd or 3rd best of the week... not that I know anything about car washing).

Once I finished I trekked up 49 through Mokolumne Hill. That road is a blast in the 914. I zoomed over the river for the turny road up to the top of the hill. Then I blasted through the historic district of Moke Hill. 10,000 people lived in the town 140 years ago. Maybe 700 or so there now. They struck gold there and mined it out back in the 1860's or something like that. It was a rough place at one time too. They had a very diverse group of people living there... Indians, the Chinese, Mexicans and white bread Americans all fighting for the gold. I wanted to stop for a beer but the Taco Bell was wreaking havoc on me.

Once at the top I headed down into San Andreas, the town where I went to high school. It's funny a town named San Andreas and the San Andreas Fault is 100 or so miles west in the bay area. There ain't much to the town either except that is where Elijah was taken for his last seizure and some drug store that seems to be popular around the area. High school was fun. I liked the history of the area a lot. It was a cool place to grow up.

So I headed out the back of town down Dogtown Rd. I hadn't been down the road in years until a few weeks back. This time I had the right car. The 914 hugged this road tight. I never went over 50 miles per hour once but even that was a bit fast!! When I came through Calaveritas I heard a pop. My engine lid on the 914 blew open on me. I had to pull off and refasten it. It was fun... when I stopped, all these cows came running at me and they stopped at the fence line. It nearly freaked me out. The majority of Dogtown is a narrow one lane road. It was a fun ride hugging all those corners and squealing the tires and slamming on the brakes. But the pavement was way too uneven for my suspension. I bounced all over the place for 11 miles. Once I got into Angels Camp, I stopped for a break at Starbucks.

I felt better at Starbucks. I got some relief there. I had a little cappuccino and a bottle of water. I had a little biker group stop and ask me about the car. That was kind of cool. I mostly sat there checking the college basketball scores on my iPod. I drove into downtown because one of the biker people told me they saw a bunch of Porsches earlier. I didn't find any so I turned around and headed back down to my parents. Highway 49 is fun in that car.

Overall I had a great time, not thinking about anything. I didn't think much of the pain. I had such an unusual time last week with the pain, hardly being able to walk. Today I felt fine... I felt normal as normal could be. My shoulder is killing me but that is probably from driving. The road seems to calm my nerves and helps me think clearly. I got a busy couple of weeks here so I just needed a little break.

I had filled up before I left and I refilled the car once I got down to Valley Springs. I drove 115 miles and took 4.3 gallons. Not bad for a souped up 35 year old car and all the hard driving I did. About 27 miles to the gallon there. Not bad at 4 bucks which is now the price for super unleaded in California. I have to buy it for the 914 and the Cayenne. I buy super for the 914 because engine burns cooler. In the summer I run octane booster too with that. If not I don't I seem to have more vapor locks with that hot engine. Didn't burn any oil which was really cool this trip.

I like turtles.


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Saturday Afternoon Post

Eric Burdon and the Animals

My left arm has been feeling weird the last few days. It's not pain necessarily it is weakness and a vibrating that peaks in my forearm but really goes from my finger tips to my neck. It's that feeling you have just after you shook the pins and needles out of your leg or something when it falls asleep. It's the end of the pins and needles, that cold kinda of dark, weak feeling. When I was in Denver the other day I got out of a car that I had been driving in for a few minutes and I headed into the restaurant. I sort of fell to a hand rail on my left. I felt all week. I just fell. Kind of weird, especially when every disease that cause that I have been tested for; all negative tests I might add. WTF?

Watching Green Bay and Seattle play football while I work mad finishing some reports for work. I gotta lot of shit to get done for people. I just keep plugging away though. I thought I would
take a break and do some typing.

Funny story regarding Elijah this morning. I took him out for coffee like I always do on the weekends. He is getting so good at walking so I let him down to follow me into Peet's Coffee. It's a long sidewalk to the store so he is totally safe. And he loves to just walk so we walk slowly to the store.

So we head in and I hold the door. We walk to the counter and I order my Latte and a Cinnamon roll. Elijah loves it! He stays close and we walk to sit while the coffee is being made. I sit down in a chair at a small round table and Elijah climbs up and sits down like me at the table. I notice this dude and his woman with their kid sitting and enjoying coffee. The dude looks at me all inquisitive and shit.

"Hey..." he says, "How old is your son?"

I am shocked because Elijah is usually confused as being my daughter because he is such a pretty boy.

"Um...17 months?" I say...

"Wow...", he says, "I wish my son can do that. My son is over 2 years old and we have to help him do everything."

"That sucks, "I say, and I just turned and handed Elijah a piece of the roll. Not paying attention to that family the rest of the time. I showed another cool trick. I left Elijah in his seat and walked the 5 feet away to get my coffee. Elijah sat smiling and eating his cinnamon roll.

I felt superior...

My left hand hurts now so this story ends now...

The Good Thing About Having Your Birthday On Christmas

Okay... So today is my birthday and I wanted to write the anti-thesis of my previous anti-Christmas Birthday posts. Some random acts of kindness have occurred through midday and there is one startling fact that I have one up on everyone on.

First the fact, the DMV is closed on Christmas. So if you are like me and you wait until the last minute to renew your driver's license when it comes do, you have to spend like two days in line to get processed so you can officially drive again after your birthday.

Nobody likes waiting at the DMV and neither do I. However... Nobody goes to the DMV on Christmas Eve. And if you think anyone is a poor soul working at the DMV try seeing them on Christmas Eve. Oh my God!!! The cool thing for me... No one... I mean no one was there. I got in and out like that. Even got a shnassy new photo of me in my leather jacket that I got for my birthday. Cool thing about a Christmas Birthday: No lines at the DMV.

The second cool thing, we rolled through Valley Springs and if you haven't been to this town in ten years or so, you'd be shocked to find that there is a Starbucks Drive Thru right on the east side of town. The town up until like 5 years ago had 500 people in it that suddenly exploded to 7,700 has a Starbucks. I mean... the town doesn't even have a signal light. Calaveras County has like two and they are both up in Angels Camp. But they have a Starbucks.

So we roll in with the Porsche full of Elijah's gifts and the voice in the speaker goes, "Merry Christmas, what can I get for you today?" So I gave the ole, "Actually you forgot happy birthday..." Surprised, they started singing to me!!! And then they offered a free breakfast sandwich which DW wanted. I told them it was going to her. So when I rolled up to the window they gave me my triple shot venti Latte for FREE!!!. Unfuckingbelievable!!! A free Latte. Made my birthday. Starbucks rules!

That and my wife sang happy birthday all the way home to different tunes that randomly popped up on the iPod. Unusually hearing Happy Birthday sung to the tune of , Nirvana's "Come As You Are" or INXS's "Devil Inside" or even "Disposable Heros" by Metallica

We are in the middle of Halftime for our day. Gotta head up to my bro's house next. Listening to U2's Joshua Tree remastered that my fine sister in law got me for Christmas. (lol "fine" sister in law) iTunes screwed up and dropped it into the middle of the old Joshua Tree album. It's interesting because you can hear such subtle differences in the drums and bass. Then all the extra guitar parts in Running To Stand Still, one of my alltime favorite songs. God, a 20 year old album sounding like new. I was 13 when it came out. The B side version of Silver And Gold is freaking awesome!!! It's played live on Rattle and Hum but this cool!!!

Anyway... good day so far. Gonna go drink some Spanish wines!!!