Tuesday 10/6/98:
Made a lot of calls on the Motorhome trying to find parts, I didn't find any.  Apparently there isn't a large demand for 13 year old windshield wiper assembles so nobody stocks them.  The glass for the back is going to have to be custom cut.  I did find out the microwave in the Motorhome was no good and the reservoir for radiator coolant is gone, the mounting screws and hoses are there but the tank is gone, hmmmmm
Mike's soccer coach called and said "I quit" the "Soccer Mom's" beat up on him (Verbally) at the last game and one of the Dad's called him an asshole (Pot calling the Kettle "black" if you ask me), so he said "I don't need this".  I don't blame the guy for backing out.  One of the Yuppette's is going to take over, I can't wait.
I posted my first Web Page Tonight.  More like a Newsletter/Diary/ Message Board for Friends and Family.  Hope somebody likes it.

Wednesday: 10/7/98
Two Dr. appointments today, one with "B" and one for Cindy at 11:45.  We had it all planned out how it was going to work, I would take Christian, Mike, Calie & Mokie to school.  Christy would get Cindy "B" and Autumn ready for the Dr. we would drop Autumn off at a friend in Palmdale and she would take her to school at 11:30.  Autumn unfortunately had a fever and so did Christian, so they didn't go to school.  By the time we made arrangements to drop them all off at the same friend it was to late to do it so we just went straight to the Dr. I dropped of Christy and '"B" and took the rest to Palmdale and dropped them off, I drove back to the Dr. and Christy and "B" were still waiting to get in.  Once we finished up with "B", we talked to Dr. Rupp about Cindy.  We managed to get EEG's ordered for "B" and Cindy, we and the Dr. suspect that Cindy is still having Petite Mal seizures and that '"B" is going to have no identifiable abnormalities.  We went back to drop off "B" and pick up Cindy for her appointment.  Autumn was feeling better and her fever was gone so we made arrangements to meet our friend at Autumns School because it was getting late.  We made it back for the Councilor appointment. The Sylvia the Councilor is a little surreal.  She makes a rather odd first impression.  She has some rather unfortunate tic's and seems to fidget more than the kids.  She spent the whole session trying to minimize all our concerns.

Thursday: 10/8/98
ROF tonight (ROF: Retired Old Farts reunion).  It was a pretty good get together, it got a little intense when the conversation got around to Clinton though.  It is interesting to me that people can be so polarized about their opinion of this whole circus. You are what you believe apparently, nobody's opinion changed.

Friday: 10/9/98
 I managed to get the leak patched in the gas tank and the water tank. I have been crawling around underneath the monster looking for trouble, I found lots of rubbing wires and hydraulic lines and I'm lashing them all to the frame with "cable-ties'.  I am also looking for why the gas gauge doesn't work. After we gave Autumn to "Dan the School Bus Driver" Christy and I went to "Travel World" looking for bits and pieces for the motorhome.  We found lots of stuff but didn't buy anything.

Mike's 15:30 soccer practice lasted 2 and 1/2 hours an hour and a half longer than usual.  I still feel gunky from last night.  I am going to bed.

Saturday: 10/10/98
Mike's Soccer game was at 08:00 Christian  played at noon.  Mike's team lost 8 to 1 but he did excellent.  He played his position, he didn't get mad, he passed his team mates. One of the players on the other team started to get on him about pushing and Mike started to get mad and when he realized that he was mad he turned and walked away , that was the highlight of the game for me.  Christian's game was super too, his team won for the first time.  Christian made the first goal and assisted on the other three.  He is a smart player and his fearlessness helps too.  Christy took the girls out to get Halloween costumes,  Christian conned his way along too.

Sunday: 10/11/98
I intend to act like I'm retired, couch potato day....... I am still intending to take the Motorhome out to Phoenix Sunday night,  wish me luck......
 

Sunday 10/11/98

My Niece, Christine Aleman,  in Phoenix asked " So, was that a "typical" week that you described in your E-Mail? "

"Typical" is one of those words that can be interpreted a couple of ways, I would say that the pace of the week was comparable relatively  to most other weeks, the actual who, what, when, where and why stuff varies radically.  For instance about a half hour of my time this morning was taken up by a cleaning project consisting of removing the contents of an entire gallon bottle of maple syrup from the floor of our kitchen.  Christian dropped it and it burst.  It took me a couple of seconds to figure out how I was going to accomplish it, rags ... No ... Shop-Vac ... No .... I grabbed a butcher knife and a flat pan like gizmo that Christy had and scraped and scooped the syrup up into a spaghetti pan, a little at a time until the floor was clean enough for the rags to be effective. That is not a typical event but it is typical of the way I trip, stumble, and lurch through the day.  If I ever get more than an hour doing what I had planned to do I have to stop to see if all the kids are still conscious.......  One other example .....last Friday I was inside my shed looking for a tool and noted to myself that it was unusually well lit,
Digression ......... Reminds me of an old joke.....:

********************************
Sherlock Holmes and Matthew Watson were on a camping and hiking trip.

They had gone to bed and were lying there looking up at the sky.
Holmes said, "Watson, look up. What do you see?

"Well, I see thousands of stars."

"And what does that mean to you?"

"Well, I guess it means we will have another nice day tomorrow. What
does it mean to you, Holmes?"

"To me, it means someone has stolen our tent."
********************************

after deducing that the lights weren't on I looked up and saw a hole, about the size of an eight year old boy.  After interrogation Christian admitted that he was chasing a kite last week, (yes he was, that's his story and he's sticking to it) and in the process he had to  leap from the roof of the house through the roof of the shed, (about 8 feet) well almost through.  I inspected him in the off chance that I will let him live and he isn't even scratched. I will probably not spend much time with the Motorhome today because I will have to spend some time figuring out how to fix the hole.  I wanted to watch football ...

I was cleaning out the Motorhome and needed to move the drivers seat forward, apparently some MENSA reject wired the electric seat and rigged it so that when it went all the way forward the battery wire would get caught and pinched between the seat and the track it slides in. This effectively sent battery directly to ground and set fire to the rug, it's a good thing the connector plug was 14 gauge and the battery wire was 12 gauge. the 14 gauge acted like a fuse and burned itself in two.

About the time I was set to round up the kids and go to get parts to fix the wiring I got a call from Cheryl (A friend) asking, "Are the girls ready to go to the recital?"  "Huh?" I said "Has Chris got the girls ready to go to the dance recital!" she said, "Noooo" I said looking at the girls who looked like they had been living in a hay loft for a month. "Christy isn't here, she's shopping"  Cheryl said she would come by in twenty minutes to get the girls, "....they have to have their hair combed and wear their "Church Dresses" she said as she hung up.  Well I got Cindy and Calie washed, dressed and brushed in less than 20 minutes and took off to meet Cheryl.  I met Christy on the way up and she said "Oh (a bad word) I forgot" Christy got ready and Cheryl arrived Christy and the Cindy and Calie left and I took Mike, "B", Christian Mokie and Autumn and spent the next couple hours going to the Auto Parts place in Palmdale (Acton is shut down on Sundays), and buying a well balanced dinner at Taco Bell.  I rewired the seat and did some more testing of the electrical part of the van.  I plugged in the 30 amp cable and every thing worked but the outside and inside AC plugs.  I tried the AC lights and they didn't work either. I knew they worked with the generator so I turned it on and sure as daylight they worked. I turned off the generator and they still worked.  Mystifying,  there must be a relay or automatic circuit breaker somewhere.  Anyway, I am ready to go but Christy isn't back from the recital yet.  I will probably wait till tomorrow night to go to Phoenix.  I'm too tired to try it tonight.

Monday 10/12/98

"....I told everyone in Arizona I was going to take the MotorMonster over today but I forgot about Christian's Dr. appointment. Unfortunately it is at 14:30 and Calie gets out of school at 14:45 and Mokie and the others at 15:00, Christy can't be in both places at once.  During the day I managed to get the replacement for the shattered rear window ordered. The only thing holding the window together is the tinting film. On the way back I hit a bump with the Motorhome and bounced the brand new microwave out of it's little slot onto the stove and then upside down onto the floor.  It's toast... ..... damn.

Christy got back and Christian is fine.

I took off for Scottsdale with my fingers crossed at about 21:00.  I assumed it would get at least 4.5 MPG and I assumed that it really did have a 60 gallon gas tank, and ..... well .... I assumed a lot.  I got coffee and filled up at the local Unical 76 and made it to Blyth and filled up. The nozzle shut itself off at 29 gallons, I couldn't believe it I figured 45 gallons minimum. I tried to put more in but it wouldn't take any more, ended up pumping about a cup of gas onto the pavement. I figured out the mileage at 8.05 MPG. "....Amazing.

Tuesday 10/13/98

I drove about 30 miles past Quartzite and pulled over for some sleep.  At the pace I was going I would have been in Scottsdale at about 4:30 ... that wouldn't do.  I got about 3 hours sleep and drove to Phoenix and got some breakfast.

They have "Road Gangs", prisoners in black and white striped uniforms, guarded by guards with shot-guns.  I almost crashed into a truck.  I wanted to turn around and get a picture but turning around in the MotorMonster is out of the question.  If any of you 'Zonies get a chance tell me what's going on I would appreciate it, it was like a scene out of "Cool Hand Luke" .    Pulled into Sue's at about 11:00.  Mom looks well, but is very tired, the Dean household is, as usual, running like a swiss watch, a very complicated swiss watch. The Deans, Alemans, and Grandma are all managing to get around without any fisticuffs.  Actually, Mom does needle point and Christine and Dave take off for work, Ross is busy modifying the old abode and Sue provides entertainment for 19 month old John David Aleman (Called 'Jack' for no apparent reason).  We all went out to dinner at a nice Mexican Restaurant ( I can't remember the name) and were met there by the Wieda's (sp).  When we got back I had to go to bed, I couldn't go much longer on 3 hours sleep.

Wednesday 10/14/98

"....I got up and made a few minor repairs to the Monsterhome, door locks, headlights, put some screen in the front grill to catch rocks because the radiator seemed to have taken a beating. I said good-bye about 1:30 and headed over to see Alan, my 10th cousin who I have been trying to meet for about a year now. Well, I guess it wasn't meant to be, I called Thursday night and waited for an answering machine but I didn't wait long enough. I managed to get the answering machine Wednesday morning and left a message (Forgot to leave my sisters number).   I drove down the 'loop '101 to the 10 freeway.  The last time, I took Northern across and that's a long haul on a two lane road for the MotorMonster.  I drove down the freeway looking for Citrus and there is no off ramp so I took Jackrabbit  and zigzagged North back over to Citrus.  I went South on 181st Ave., I had gone down to the end of the street to turn the MotorMonster around and was heading back to park in front of the house when I saw someone in a "People Mover" looking gizmo stop for the mail, open the gate and drive into your drive way.  I charged down the washboard as fast as I could, at about 10 MPH.  As I got to your drive way I saw a blond lady in a brown business suit get out and walk toward the trash. I went another 30 feet to clear the drive way and jumped out and went to the gate and she was gone.  I yelled HELLO!?!  and went back to the MotorMonster and honked the horn. I thought about climbing the fence but some guy two doors down, wearing only a pair of shorts, yelling at his dogs, was looking at me like he wished he had his gun. I thought that perhaps climbing fences was not a wise thing to be doing in rural Arizona.  I honked the horn a few more times and I waited about a half an hour and finally about 3:50 I gave up and headed home...... next time.  We will make plans for lunch or dinner somewhere.  I managed to get the damn thing home without hitting anyone, I encountered some wind just past Indio and had to slow down to about 35 MPH for a while.

Thursday 10/15/98

"....Christy took off about 10:00, she had to go help out a friend by seeing that her 5 year old got on the bus, he goes to the same school as Autumn.  I put Autumn on her bus and went to Best Buy to buy another microwave to replace the one I broke on Monday.

Christy went to Autumn's school to figure out what Autumn is trying to tell us with her sign language.  We figured that the school was teaching her stuff and we weren't in the loop.  They say they aren't teaching her any sign language, I guess Autumn is inventing her own.  Christy gave the aide, Jan, a few of the cards we've been using and she left to meet me for lunch.

I watched the Packers get their butts kicked again This is really getting sad.  The Vikings beat them up with their passing game and the Lions ate them up on the ground, Barry Sanders is an alien, he defies at least three fundamental laws of physics, no human being I have ever seen can defy gravity, inertia and cohesion (If it isn't a law it should be, no one should be able to make 90+ degree cuts at 35 MPH).  I love to watch him run .... even against the Packers

Friday 10/16/98

"....Bought a new PC  Hewlett Packard 450. It has DVD and I bought a HP CD-Writer 7200 too.  It is pretty slick but the process of getting all my data off the old PC and onto the new is a little more cumbersome than I had first anticipated.  I will no doubt be preoccupied with this beast for a few more days.

Saturday 10/17/98

....I took '"B" to get a haircut today, I have always wanted to test out the local barber and ""B" volunteered to be the guinea pig.  There is a sign on the wall that says:

"Regular Haircuts Only"
No Appointments
No "Styling",
No Flat-Tops,
No "Steps"
Just Regular Haircuts

The Barber is 72 years old and has more business than he can handle.  I plan to visit him on Monday, Mom will be pleased........
Two more soccer games today, Mike's team lost again 3-1 but Mike was my hero again.  So far his team has scored 3 goals this season, all of them by Mike.  He tried to pass to his team mates three times right in front of the goal but they muffed the shot each time. Near the end of the game he stole the ball from an opponent right in front of our goalie and ran the entire length of the field to score a goal from point blank.  The coach and half the parents were running down the sidelines cheering him on. The other side was even cheering for him.  It was like winning the game, what a great day to be a Dad.

Christian's team won their second game, they are pretty hyped up.  Christian is a smart player, he always seems to be in the right place at the right time.  He seems to have defensive temperament, but he is utterly fearless and his opponents pick up on that real quick, the tend to want to get rid of the ball fast when they see him coming.  I took Mike to a birthday party at his pal Jesse's house,  I got home and forgot to bring a treat for Calie, Cindy & Da 'Moke, so I took them down for ice-cream.

 Sunday 10/18/98

"....Autumns Foster Parents Jerry and Joanne are due at 1 P.M. so the morning was spent getting the house in shape.  They got here about 1:30. the house was presentable and we had a nice visit, I really enjoy having them up here and so does Christy.  I didn't get to see my football but that's the breaks.  They left about Seven and I fiddled with my new PC and it is now fast approaching midnight.  gotta get this posted......

Monday 10/19/98

 "...I forgot that "Real" barber Shops are closed on Mondays. Monday was trashed anyway I ran around in circles all day and got absolutely nothing accomplished.

(Personal note: a little editing of the previous sentence and it could be my epitaph)

Tuesday 10/20/98

"...We got a call from Ed Ash today, he is in Virginia. He is the lawyer handling Mike's adoption, he had dropped out of sight for a couple of months, turns out he has been through the wringer, his brother in Virginia died, his brother's son and only heir was killed the following week in an automobile accident and Ed had a stroke 2 days after that. I guess I won't hassle him about the $250 retainer...... He said he will be in town in a week and will take care of the whole affair ....I like Ed, a Pettifogger with a conscience, I only know two others, you know who you are.

I went shopping at Cost-co, Christy went out to Home Depot and bought a bunch of stuff for the kitchen, cabinets, "under-the-cabinet-mounting" microwave, and tiles for the counter, Wonder what I'll be doing when all this stuff gets delivered in two weeks...... Christy's 'Night out' tonight, the kids and I had chicken in spaghetti sauce with noodles, it was not exactly terrific. Dogs seemed to enjoy it though........

Wednesday 10/21/98

"...Minimum day at school, so things are a little rushed today. I needed to replace the electrical socket my PC plugs into and got the job half done before I realized the socket I had was for the wrong gauge wire. Christy stayed home to put Autumn on the bus and I took off to Kaiser for Christian's puffer (Asthma). (Christy, Christian, Monica and Autumn have Asthma), Toys R Us for Calie & Cindy's awards for getting all their chores done, and Home Depot to get the proper electrical sockets.

I stopped by at the local Beauty Salon and got my haircut, finally. I decided against the regular barber for no particular reason other than I have always wanted to get a haircut in a Beauty Salon. I walked in and saw three employees one was in the back working on an older lady's hair. The woman at the counter asked if she could help me I said "I'd like a haircut" she asked " When would you like to have it done?" I said "Now?" (Apparently you need appointments even though there are no customers). The counter lady asked one of the (Not a barber … what do you call them … cosmetology practitioner CP for short?) CP's if she was free and she indicated that she was. She wanted to take me into the inner reaches of the establishment to wash my hair, I declined saying I had just washed my hair (true)and besides I was on a pretty tight schedule(Almost true). She said OK and asked me "What would you like done?" I said " I want a haircut, just a regular haircut, leave it a little long on top to disguise the fact that it's getting a little thin up there." She smiled politely, but I got the distinct feeling that she had heard that before. ………I noted from her Cosmetology license that she was not a 'local' she commutes to Acton from Palmdale, 11 miles, one way. Why do I find that sadly odd. Is it that Acton has to import Cosmetologists or that the poor lady has to travel to this little town to find a job. One comfort for her is that there is only one direction for her career to go from here .....She went to a drawer and exhumed the tiniest pair of barber scissors I have ever seen. She snipped and clipped for what seemed like an awful long time. The end result was more than satisfactory. Then she asked me "Where do you want your sideburns?" I resisted the impulse to say "Lets just leave them in front of my ears so I can find them again" or "What options do I have?" or "Behind my left knee" and said instead, 'They are fine where they are." Why do Barbers seem to presume that where you trimmed your sideburns that morning is not where you want them to be …. It's as though they imagine that we wake up, shave, stare at ourselves in the mirror and lament the fact that our sideburns are a 1/4 of an inch to long and are helpless to do anything about it. ….. just curious. Perhaps they are subliminally looking for something extra to do to mitigate the guilt they feel for charging so much for what they do.

Thursday 10/22/98

"... Minimum Day at school today for teacher / parent meetings. Christy will attend the conferences in the afternoon, they are scheduled 20 minutes apart. At about 11:30 the guy from "Water Doctor" came and tested our water … guess what … it's hard … DUH. We let him continue with his spiel and then exercising every ounce of our sales resistance, we told him that he could take his Water Purification apparatus and go … install it next Tuesday. Actually we needed to get one because of Monica's Eczema. Also, I just installed our third Water heater, the well is getting old and the water is getting harder.

Friday 10/23/98

"... Autumn has school today but there is no school for the big kids. Mike is at his buddy's house and Christy is off to a "Adoption Conference" meeting. She is a Planning Committee member and will be an instructor in one of the seminars on "Preparing your family for an adoption" I will probably go to it too, they always get their registration computer screwed up... they are not using me for "Registration" this time. I bitched too much about the management the last time I was in charge.

I took all the kids out to Home Depot to get another screen door, third this year. The kids were almost good, I told them that if they could keep it together while I picked up pictures at Cost-Co I would take them to lunch. Well they couldn't do it, "B" stuck his tongue out at Cindy and she kicked him then he kicked her then she screamed. I looked around for Christian and Mokie and they were running around playing hide-and-go-seek like it was their own personal playground, Mike and Calie were the only ones behaving. Cindy and "B" fought all the way home.... exasperating...... I took Mike and Calie out with me when Christy got home because I had to exchange the door for one 36", what a putz. I swear I looked at the door and it said 36" but I got it home and held it up to the door frame and it was 4 inches too narrow. I guess I must have been distracted somehow.

Another observation, Why is it I don't notice what the kids are wearing until I take them out in public. I got them all the way to the checkout line in Cost-Co before I noticed that Calie was wearing an orange soccer shirt, pink sweats and red socks, it made me nauseous, the colors actually vibrated. Christian was wearing the filthiest T-shirt I have ever seen, like he just tunneled out of Stalag 17. Cindy's hair looked as bad as I have ever seen it, like it hadn't been brushed in a week, and her shirt was only fractionally cleaner than Christians. "B" was actually the best dressed one of the bunch, and that is really unusual. I must appear to the world as the most negligent dad in the universe.

Saturday 10/24/98

"... Soccer starts at 11:30, Mike will go to his coaches home and Christian who missed all his practices this week will have his game at noon, Mikes game is at 13:15 and his coach will bring him to the game. (Does it seem like my days are consumed by logistics?)

Christians team won again, Christian didn't make as much of a contribution as usual but he did play a good game, he seems to have an uncanny knack for anticipating where the ball is going to be.

Mikes team lost again, Mike kept his cool through the whole dismal exhibition. His Moriority (Camron) was on the other team calling him names and giving him a hard time. It got blatant enough for his coach to mention it to the Referee, Mike held up through it all and won himself another Oreo Cookie Milkshake from Jack-in-the-Box.

I took Christy's PC in Wednesday to get it upgraded with a new Motherboard, CD-Rom and CPU, it was supposed to be done Friday, then today a noon, I got there about 17:30 and it wasn't done yet, I stood around and watched some myopic nerd totally trash it. I don't think it was all his fault but I will be lucky to salvage any thing off the C drive. The problem stemmed from the fact the C Drive is compressed. They added so much new hardware the new drivers and reallocation of space caused the FAT to get trashed. Oh well, live and learn. Should have done it myself, I probably would have messed it up too but then I wouldn't be so mad, these guys are supposed to be pro's.

I went with Christy to look at the cabinets that she bought, they are very nice. The whole kitchen re-do is a little daunting to me but it has to be done. It's falling apart, actually it fell apart years ago I've just been patching it together screws, nails and duct tape. The dishwasher is a joke and half the drawers in the cupboards are broken.... the linoleum looks like it is swept with axes.

"...Soccer practice for Mike, the time change is really screwing up practices it's dark and cold

I took Christy's PC back to the computer store, it needed all of it's video drivers. Turns out they didn't put the Motherboard in that they originally said they going to use. They reused my video card and I had the drivers at home all along. I bought an adapter for the keyboard but it was the wrong keyboard adapter. I took a trip back to Best Buy and bought the right one. Christy got home just as I was leaving to get the kids.

Sunday 11/1/98

"...More football today, the Packers are playing at 13:00 so there will be reverent silence during the game.... Sure. After the game Christy and I will be taking off for Inglewood. We will be staying at the Westin LAX Hotel for two stimulating thrill packed days of "Family’s For Life II", the LA County Adoption Conference. They gave us free rooms, can't pass up a deal like that... I guess.