Blogger Software Sucks Sometimes...
Dammit...
I just spent at least an hour writing what I thought was a pretty good posting.
It wasn't a simple personal diary entry or a spittle laced rant about something that was bothering me for a change.
It was for once a real piece of literature/opinion commentary that might have resonated with a few people.
Then I hit the "Publish" button here on on my Blogger Software and everything went to hell.
Needless to say the entire document disappeared and I'm too lazy to try to reproduce anything similar because creative writing can't be reproduced as far as I can tell and the Blogger software only managed to auto-save only the first few paragraphs.
Just Damn...
Both of my computers have some lurking spam robot/viral bullshit wandering around on them that the idiots publishing Norton 360 can't seem to find right now, and I suspect that is at least part of the problem.
And then of course Mr. Gates' lovely Window's Vista and Internet Explorer's quirks could be behind the problem.
But it's Good Friday with Easter coming up Sunday, and I'm trying to stay undisturbed for a change.
I think I'll just try to stop bitching now and think good thoughts and work on my own spirit by getting the garden started this weekend...
Regards Y'all...
Friday, April 22, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I Called The Local Talk Radio Show Today
Latest Three Minutes Of Fame...
For those of you just stopping by this blog today...or for the ones out there like me that have trouble remembering when and where you were in the past 24 hours...
I just realized that I've actually spoken in the past to Atlanta Radio Talk-Show host Neal Boortz on the air a couple of times back in the early 2000's.
Then when I lived the glorious life for four and one half years down in the "Golden Isles" on St. Simons Island Georgia, for some reason I wanted to be a"semi-regular" caller to the Lauren Nobles morning talk show back in the day.
Then this afternoon...finally...in a fit of insanity, I spent THREE MINUTES on the air with our local personality Phil Williams which has a show here every weekday afternoon Monday through Friday from 3 PM to 6 PM.
I've met the dude once and called in a couple of times and he likes to talk about the crap I want to talk about I think.
Time to go cook dinner...I guess...
For those of you just stopping by this blog today...or for the ones out there like me that have trouble remembering when and where you were in the past 24 hours...
I just realized that I've actually spoken in the past to Atlanta Radio Talk-Show host Neal Boortz on the air a couple of times back in the early 2000's.
Then when I lived the glorious life for four and one half years down in the "Golden Isles" on St. Simons Island Georgia, for some reason I wanted to be a"semi-regular" caller to the Lauren Nobles morning talk show back in the day.
Then this afternoon...finally...in a fit of insanity, I spent THREE MINUTES on the air with our local personality Phil Williams which has a show here every weekday afternoon Monday through Friday from 3 PM to 6 PM.
I've met the dude once and called in a couple of times and he likes to talk about the crap I want to talk about I think.
Time to go cook dinner...I guess...
"Screw- Top" Versus "Pop-Top"
Relieving The Pressure On My Brain
Well, the good news is that yesterday my girl and my Turbo Pup and I spent an entire day together in the same building for the first time in five days.
Turbo Pup's Mom lounged around recovering from her recent Hospital Resort Vacation.
Turbo Pup relaxed being happy that her entire Pack was back together and she could catch up on her normal 15 hour a day sleeping schedule.
And Me?
ME?
I was so busy I actually wore clothes and shoes all day while sitting at home--never left the building.
I needed the clothes and shoes because I had to meet with my PLC programmer in my basement shop in the morning to finally get this latest panel software moving off of dead center.
Then one thing lead to another and I looked up at the clock and it was already 2 PM and I was still fully clothed including shoes.
You see, most of the time around here my attire is at most a tee shirt and lounge pants and socks, and in the warmer months shirts and socks could be considered optional.
Not a pretty sight these days sometimes, but still...
So any wayyy...
Things were bouncing along pretty good until about 2 PM when I finally remembered to call and check on the progress of myprofessional pipe technicians linear tubing installers so called "plumbers" working down in Lower Alabama.
Mom hadn't seen or heard a thing today.
After an exchange of phone calls back and forth from her end, she called me back to report that the owner's wife had cursed her out, and hung up the phone.
I placed a call to their office to confirm that regardless of their intentions, that I was officially terminating their participation in the project, and the stupid lady proceed to call me and Mom--the customers--"incompetent."
When I pointed out that we were the customers and if anyone was "incompetent" it was the owners and some of the people working at Goolsby Brothers Plumbing & Electrical, the lovely woman then proceeded to curse at me and hung up the phone.
WTF?
I then wrote them a letter and faxed it over with a copy of a check covering the time they had spent out on the property on Monday and further instructed them that they were not to set foot on our property again or we would prosecute them for criminal trespass.
And so now after all of the crap I went through last week calling around looking for a competent plumber, and then flying all the way to Alabama trying to coordinate the effort, I find myself back to square one this morning trying to find someone smart enough to remove some dirt and connect a few elbows and some straight PVC pipe to the existing working piping on a timely basis for a reasonable price.
The good news is that I have two very good prospects...but the project probably will not be finished until next Monday at earliest--a week after we dug the holes and found the pipes.
Oh...WAIT...I almost forgot...
Now, as to the so-called "professional plumbing company" and the sweet, sweet, lovely woman--supposedly the owner's wife--manning the phones over at Goolsby Brothers Plumbing and Electrical in Enterprise, Alabama?
They are going to rue the day they screwed around and acted like this on a project with a guy that's a blogger and knows how to handle things here on the Internet.
I'm not going the liable/slander route because I don't have to...they gave me enough stuff in less than a week to keep me busy for at least a month warning potential customers about our experience.
I'm starting later this morning with Angie's list.
Then I'll move on to all of the referral web sites that have customer reviews.
Then the Better Business Bureau.
I have a lot of paying things to do right now, but I have a looooonnnnnngggg memory, and any company that would let an employee...let alone the owner's wife...call and curse out a senior citizen for no reason, deserves a special place in Hell...
...and I have several ideas how to make sure they enjoy an expedited trip through the gates to their just rewards.
That will be all, for now...Y'all.
Well, the good news is that yesterday my girl and my Turbo Pup and I spent an entire day together in the same building for the first time in five days.
Turbo Pup's Mom lounged around recovering from her recent Hospital Resort Vacation.
Turbo Pup relaxed being happy that her entire Pack was back together and she could catch up on her normal 15 hour a day sleeping schedule.
And Me?
ME?
I was so busy I actually wore clothes and shoes all day while sitting at home--never left the building.
I needed the clothes and shoes because I had to meet with my PLC programmer in my basement shop in the morning to finally get this latest panel software moving off of dead center.
Then one thing lead to another and I looked up at the clock and it was already 2 PM and I was still fully clothed including shoes.
You see, most of the time around here my attire is at most a tee shirt and lounge pants and socks, and in the warmer months shirts and socks could be considered optional.
Not a pretty sight these days sometimes, but still...
So any wayyy...
Things were bouncing along pretty good until about 2 PM when I finally remembered to call and check on the progress of my
Mom hadn't seen or heard a thing today.
After an exchange of phone calls back and forth from her end, she called me back to report that the owner's wife had cursed her out, and hung up the phone.
I placed a call to their office to confirm that regardless of their intentions, that I was officially terminating their participation in the project, and the stupid lady proceed to call me and Mom--the customers--"incompetent."
When I pointed out that we were the customers and if anyone was "incompetent" it was the owners and some of the people working at Goolsby Brothers Plumbing & Electrical, the lovely woman then proceeded to curse at me and hung up the phone.
WTF?
I then wrote them a letter and faxed it over with a copy of a check covering the time they had spent out on the property on Monday and further instructed them that they were not to set foot on our property again or we would prosecute them for criminal trespass.
And so now after all of the crap I went through last week calling around looking for a competent plumber, and then flying all the way to Alabama trying to coordinate the effort, I find myself back to square one this morning trying to find someone smart enough to remove some dirt and connect a few elbows and some straight PVC pipe to the existing working piping on a timely basis for a reasonable price.
The good news is that I have two very good prospects...but the project probably will not be finished until next Monday at earliest--a week after we dug the holes and found the pipes.
Oh...WAIT...I almost forgot...
Now, as to the so-called "professional plumbing company" and the sweet, sweet, lovely woman--supposedly the owner's wife--manning the phones over at Goolsby Brothers Plumbing and Electrical in Enterprise, Alabama?
They are going to rue the day they screwed around and acted like this on a project with a guy that's a blogger and knows how to handle things here on the Internet.
I'm not going the liable/slander route because I don't have to...they gave me enough stuff in less than a week to keep me busy for at least a month warning potential customers about our experience.
I'm starting later this morning with Angie's list.
Then I'll move on to all of the referral web sites that have customer reviews.
Then the Better Business Bureau.
I have a lot of paying things to do right now, but I have a looooonnnnnngggg memory, and any company that would let an employee...let alone the owner's wife...call and curse out a senior citizen for no reason, deserves a special place in Hell...
...and I have several ideas how to make sure they enjoy an expedited trip through the gates to their just rewards.
That will be all, for now...Y'all.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Good Test Results
Never Mind...
Good News!!
When the diagnostic tests were finished and we got home about Midnight last night, we had learned that other than having to live with me, apparently Turbo Pup Mom's problem is stress related, not Heart defect related.
I'm going to try to slow things down a little around here for a while.
Time to hit the shop and try to catch up for things missed over the past three weeks of insanity.
We appreciate your prayers & support.
Good News!!
When the diagnostic tests were finished and we got home about Midnight last night, we had learned that other than having to live with me, apparently Turbo Pup Mom's problem is stress related, not Heart defect related.
I'm going to try to slow things down a little around here for a while.
Time to hit the shop and try to catch up for things missed over the past three weeks of insanity.
We appreciate your prayers & support.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
If It's Not One Thing...
Then It's Another
The good news is that I finally made it back here to the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River slightly before midnight last night.
The bad news is that the Turbo Pup's Mom was suddenly admitted to the local Hospital yesterday morning--the one I spent a couple of nights in recently--for an unplanned diagnostice procedure and had to spend the night last night.
I have to go now and see my Girl.
Prayers would be accepted and appreciated.
The good news is that I finally made it back here to the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River slightly before midnight last night.
The bad news is that the Turbo Pup's Mom was suddenly admitted to the local Hospital yesterday morning--the one I spent a couple of nights in recently--for an unplanned diagnostice procedure and had to spend the night last night.
I have to go now and see my Girl.
Prayers would be accepted and appreciated.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Funky "Swing Shift" Work Schedule Yields Sleeping Air Controllers
Government Insanity/Stupidity At it's Finest...
Does anyone but me wonder why the government has people that do things as important as controlling Commercial and Private (and even some Military) Air Traffic working weird work schedules which even people that do things like building automobiles or making plastic bottles aren't asked to work.
Where I come from, if you work "shift work" you generally do "first shift" or "second shift" or "3rd night shift" for at least weeks if not months at a time.
Some people spend most of their careers working "night shift" because they like it.
But the FAA's idea of a work schedule?
Check out these details I was surprised to learn this morning about what some of the controllers are asked to do at control towers--particularly those serving smaller airports:
Union spokesman Doug Church said up to now, 25 percent of the the nation's air traffic controllers work what he called a "2-2-1″ schedule, working afternoon to night the first two days, followed by a mandatory minimum of eight hours for rest before starting two morning-to-afternoon shifts, another eight or more hours for sleep, then a final shift starting between 10 p.m. to midnight.
"Maybe we need to work in more time for rest," Church said. "You’re forcing yourself to work at a time when the body is used to sleeping."
I don't know about you, but if I were a controller I'd do like other employees in other industries that pick a schedule and accept adequate pay to compensate me for working that schedule.
You can't tell me that there aren't people out there that would agree to work the night shift full time for at least a big chunk of the year rather than having to switch back and forth between daytime and nighttime during the week every week.
Then again, maybe it's the Air Traffic Controller UNION thugs which are responsible for this situation.
Regardless, it doesn't make much sense to me...that coming from a guy that's flown ten flight legs in the past 8 weeks.
Maybe it's just me....
Does anyone but me wonder why the government has people that do things as important as controlling Commercial and Private (and even some Military) Air Traffic working weird work schedules which even people that do things like building automobiles or making plastic bottles aren't asked to work.
Where I come from, if you work "shift work" you generally do "first shift" or "second shift" or "3rd night shift" for at least weeks if not months at a time.
Some people spend most of their careers working "night shift" because they like it.
But the FAA's idea of a work schedule?
Check out these details I was surprised to learn this morning about what some of the controllers are asked to do at control towers--particularly those serving smaller airports:
Union spokesman Doug Church said up to now, 25 percent of the the nation's air traffic controllers work what he called a "2-2-1″ schedule, working afternoon to night the first two days, followed by a mandatory minimum of eight hours for rest before starting two morning-to-afternoon shifts, another eight or more hours for sleep, then a final shift starting between 10 p.m. to midnight.
"Maybe we need to work in more time for rest," Church said. "You’re forcing yourself to work at a time when the body is used to sleeping."
I don't know about you, but if I were a controller I'd do like other employees in other industries that pick a schedule and accept adequate pay to compensate me for working that schedule.
You can't tell me that there aren't people out there that would agree to work the night shift full time for at least a big chunk of the year rather than having to switch back and forth between daytime and nighttime during the week every week.
Then again, maybe it's the Air Traffic Controller UNION thugs which are responsible for this situation.
Regardless, it doesn't make much sense to me...that coming from a guy that's flown ten flight legs in the past 8 weeks.
Maybe it's just me....
One Step Forward
Two Steps Back...
Well, yesturday I spent four hours playing "ditch digger from hell" to no avail...
The water line here was installed 27 years ago and additional driveway surface has been installed since and we have only a very general idea where it runs through the property.
I removed the St. Augustine Grass sod in chunks and dug a a ditch 15" to 18" deep along a 20' section of the drive adjacent to the leak and didn't find anything.
Today I'm going for getting another 6" of depth in some of the trench and after that it's up to the professionals to find it.
Then because I couldn't find THAT leaking pipe, just for fun I started fooling around with the water heater flushing the pressure/temperature relief valve and when I was done IT STARTED LEAKING.
Then for even more fun I tried to turn off the cold water supply valve to the water heater and it was STUCK from probably not being used in 15 or 20 years , and then when I managed to break it free it wouldn't close completely and get this...
IT STARTED LEAKING AROUND THE SHAFT!
Probably from the age of the valve and sediment building up in the valve seat and around the seal on the shaft.
So after I managed to screw the top back on the top of my head covering my exploded brain, we had to turn off the water to the whole house and make the obligatory trip to Lowe's for two valves and PVC pipe and fittings and so on and so on.
Now I have about 7 hours left after daylight to fool around in my ditch and install two valves on the water heater and get back to the airport for the return flight to Knoxtown later this afternoon.
If on FOX News you see anyone killed in a water heater explosion or drowning in a freak water pipe accident, check the name and location on the story because--the way things are going right now--there's a good possibility it might be ME.
Well, yesturday I spent four hours playing "ditch digger from hell" to no avail...
The water line here was installed 27 years ago and additional driveway surface has been installed since and we have only a very general idea where it runs through the property.
I removed the St. Augustine Grass sod in chunks and dug a a ditch 15" to 18" deep along a 20' section of the drive adjacent to the leak and didn't find anything.
Today I'm going for getting another 6" of depth in some of the trench and after that it's up to the professionals to find it.
Then because I couldn't find THAT leaking pipe, just for fun I started fooling around with the water heater flushing the pressure/temperature relief valve and when I was done IT STARTED LEAKING.
Then for even more fun I tried to turn off the cold water supply valve to the water heater and it was STUCK from probably not being used in 15 or 20 years , and then when I managed to break it free it wouldn't close completely and get this...
IT STARTED LEAKING AROUND THE SHAFT!
Probably from the age of the valve and sediment building up in the valve seat and around the seal on the shaft.
So after I managed to screw the top back on the top of my head covering my exploded brain, we had to turn off the water to the whole house and make the obligatory trip to Lowe's for two valves and PVC pipe and fittings and so on and so on.
Now I have about 7 hours left after daylight to fool around in my ditch and install two valves on the water heater and get back to the airport for the return flight to Knoxtown later this afternoon.
If on FOX News you see anyone killed in a water heater explosion or drowning in a freak water pipe accident, check the name and location on the story because--the way things are going right now--there's a good possibility it might be ME.
