July 2002, Week 2

Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.

Ronald Reagan

Monday July 8 , 2002

Well lets see, the van is dead (almost, transmission), the Cadillac is really dead (Oil in the radiator), the Buick was dead and was resurrected and given away, today the Taurus quit on me, I was coming home with some 2X4's to build a wall and it just stopped. I pulled off the road and it started up a few minutes later, but it only went about 50 yards, I was about to call AAA when I remembered what happened in Colorado, I removed the gas cap and it started up and ran OK, (Vapor-locked?). I took it to T&J and talked about it and decided it was the venting gas cap not venting and causing vapor lock, I bought a new one and drove up the hill, it quit again in the drive way... so... I took it back to T&J... bummer, now we are down to one car for a while. We have never had just one car... this will be interesting.

Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

- Benjamin Franklin

Tuesday July 9 , 2002

I took the kids to school, and now I have to get ready to go to a meeting with Mike's therapist.

The Therapist wants to see if she can get him to stop swearing so much. Talk appropriately, Mike managed to get his butt out of trouble with his therapist.

Jeff could find nothing wrong with the car... irksome, I hate when that happens... I had a Ford van with a fuel problem and tried for years to figure it out... never did.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Wednesday July 10 , 2002

Told Tom we would buy the van... it's nice, 1990 Dodge Ram 250 only 71000 miles on it and only $5500... I'll take a picture...

We decided to get a small loan to cover the van and then pay it off when the checks come in... the loan was refused because the credit company said we were taken to collections... not true... I have a call into the credit company... Scary thought...

Thursday July 11 , 2002

Bought the van anyway, I took it to Palmdale everyone fits in it in a pinch but it really only fits eight... drives nice but it's not real powerful... it will do.

Christy discovered that Mike pierced his tongue... I don't know how to handle this the more upset I get the more defiant he becomes... Christy got him to take it out, it's infected, he did it with a safety pin...

I went to the ROF, I took Calie and DaMoke with me, they had a ball, Mokie ate so much she gagged... , Jim, John, Lois, & Joe were there Tony didn't show up, Jim Elder called and he won't make it, poor baby, we went home at about 2100.

Wrote a rant

Friday July 12 , 2002

I told the kids that I would give the a dime for every nail they find in the back yard and in the driveway... stupid... it will cost me about $80.00...

I took Christian out to buy a video game, I had 2 hours before the movie I wanted to see started... we went to Wall-Mart, Best Buy and finally ended up in Toys R Us... when I got home it was too late I picked up Mike and we went to Valencia to see a later showing, it was sold out so was the next... Road to Perdition... I will wait till next week, I will go during the day, I hate crowds in the movies, I want the theater to be as empty as possible.

My hands are really getting to be annoying, the arthritis is getting so painful it is distracting... I need to make an appointment to see Dr. Kodel at Kaiser, I will probably get my blood test done at the same time.

I called my Financial Advisor at Smith Barney. I am not ready to panic but I am ready to make some changes... it is incredible to me how much money has been stolen by the chicanery perpetrated by Big Business... ridiculous. The Stock Market is crashing and there's not a damn thing I can do about it... I am afraid to look at my account, the DOW went down over 700 points in a week... not good.

Saturday July 13 , 2002

I watched my races. 250cc Race: Ricky 1 - 1, 125cc Race: Bubba 2 - 1 Bubba was amazing, he crashed just after the start, someone ran over his legs, he got up and reentered the race in 39th place... if it had been one lap longer he might have won, I have been watching him race in the lead so long I had forgotten what it was like to watch him charge from the back of the field, He made it look like the others were pedaling tricycles.

I went to the Meadowlark field to work with Mike Bunce and Landis Kent,

I offered to take anyone to the theater who helped clean the house, I took Mike and "B" to the movies, I dropped them off to see 'Reign of Fire' and Mokie and I went out to lunch and went shopping. I like hanging out with Mokie. I left Christian home with Christy.

I listened to a singer/songwriter named Lucy Kaplansky. I really enjoyed her singing, intelligent/pop/folk/country... something.

She sang several songs and I enjoyed them a lot, then she sang a song for her grandmother... She sang a song called 'Song for Molly' about her grandmother sitting on the edge of her bed on a Sunday Morning in a 'Rest Home', her Church clothes packed away long ago, my mind flashed back to a Sunday morning in Phoenix, my mother lying helpless on her bed in the rest home smiling... and sobbed for a short while. It took me three years to shed tears for my mother... strange. Same thing for my dad, I was watching Field of Dreams and got blindsided with a scene at the end. Emotions seem to sneak up on me when I am least expecting them...

Sunday July 14 , 2002

Christy went out to breakfast with Bonnie, she got back about 1230.

I rode the bike out to Jim Elder's place, he has 20 acres about 8 miles south of Mojave, He is building a concrete and Styrofoam house. It's really pretty damn ingenious, The forms are Polystyrene panels separated by hard plastic (Same stuff they used to make telephones out of he says). When the foundation is poured, the forms go up and then a concrete pumper comes out, and pumps truck after truck of concrete till the forms are full. The Styrofoam stays up and you use screws into the plastic to put up wallboard... don't know what he's going to use on the outside. I went inside and even without doors it's actually cool inside it, the temperature was about 110 outside. There is an older concrete house built in the 30's there, it looked like hell on the outside but inside it was really nice, and also cool, it is 'U' shaped, the outside had small windows but the inside had windows opening onto a patio and a large pool. No one lives there now the owner uses it as a classroom for teaching Mine Rescue

While I was gone, Christy went to pick up Sandy in Simi Valley... she got back about 2200. Mike and Christian stayed home alone, lord knows what they were up to.

I have been a real grump all day, I am not sure why exactly, snapping at everyone... just exasperated with the house and the people in it, including myself I guess. It's hot, I don't want to know how hot it is. I just deleted a whole paragraph of bitching and whining... shame on me... things could be worse...