March 01 w-3

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries...

Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1672-1719)

Monday              March 12, 2001

Starting to wonder again if anyone is reading this... I estimate that about 80% (maybe more) of what I write is of no interest to anyone except potentially in a historical, slice of life, sense. If my hard drive doesn't fry itself before I save it ...

Christy woke up today and got all gussied up for a meeting in Palmdale with a private Foster / Adoption agency. the meeting was at 10:00 sharp, she got there 10 minutes early... well, actually it was 10 minutes and one week early. 

I took the rear tire for Mike's bike in to get the hub fixed... $76.00... damn...

I went to Barnes & Noble  to get a book by Bill Bryson. I got the notion there might be something to this guy when I went searching for the author of an article called "France: A Travel Advisory" (Now posted on my Joke page) it was attributed to "Author Unknown" It occurred to me that it was too well written to be a one shot deal, it had to have been written by a pro... So, I searched the Internet and found about 4000 copies of it, 99% of them were also attributed to "Anonymous" a few pinheads were taking credit for writing it themselves I only found three that were attributing it to Bryson. Not knowing who he was I went searching for more things he had written... that's where I saw that he had written a book called  "A Walk in the Woods", a light went on and I remembered that  my brother-in-law tried to get me to read it 3 years ago, at the time I said "Sure Ross, I'll pick up a copy" and promptly forgot about it... I also bought another book written by B. Bryson called "I'm a Stranger Here Myself"  I started reading the "Stranger" book about an hour ago and finely had to stop... I was laughing too hard and waking the kids. It seems to be a series of articles he wrote about what it was like for him to return to America to live after living in England for 20 years...He is a lot of fun to read.

Tuesday              March 13, 2001

Calie worked on Mikes hair for about two hours last night... I thought it was a joke but he informed me he was going to wear it to school. I said no way, you look like a damn porcupine, He said he was I said no after about twenty minutes I said he could bleach his hair if he took the rubber-bands out. Christy and I spent about 15 minutes cutting the damn things out of his hair...

There is a guy in a white pick-up truck that always gives me a dirty look when I pass him on the dirt road... I think it's the fella that drives the road-grader. He works hard but he's really screwing up the road... I don't know what his problem is... he's one of the people who brought their San Fernando ways up here I think, he should have moved to Valencia where there are Community Regulating Committees, no one is allowed to stand out from anyone else down there, they even regulate the type of plants you can plant, no parking in the driveway, one fella put up an American Flag on a non-patriotic holiday and the made him take it down,,, people who want their neighbors to live up to their tight-assed expectations need to live among their own kind... this is not suburbia... it's creeping up my way, there are a bunch of houses all crammed together about two miles down, nice homes and nice folks but they have lawns, and fences... and expectations about their neighbors... too stressful for lil-ole-me. I like my solitude, I want more actually... 

Wednesday         March 14, 2001

I finally fixed the passenger side mirror on my truck... it was broken when I bought it... it is a motorized affair and very convienient. I waited a year because the damn thing worked fine, the problem was that the bracket that supports it inside the door was broken... I had taken it in and was told that the mirror would cost $125.00 plus $30.00 an hour to install (1/2 hour = $15.00). I said I'd be back when I had $125.00 to spare... well today was the day.. I went in to the Ford Dealership and bought the mirror and drove over to the body shop to have it installed. (It would take me an hour and a half and every cussword I know to install it myself) I talked to the owner and he got a fella named Ruiz to do the work, the first thing Ruiz said to me was "You know they have a special glue that would fix this, it costs about $10.00." I said; "Well, no, I didn't know that." When I was in here 6 months ago the guy I talked to said I needed to buy a new mirror, He didn't tell me anything about glue, had he told me about glue I would have bought glue."  Damn... story of my life...

I took my old mountain bike in to get resurrected... then tonight I took Calie in to Wal-Mart and bought her a new bike... hers is trashed... I picked her old bike out... she never liked it... too many levers and switches, she was never able to figure it out....

Thursday            March 15, 2001

I have been trying to get the truck in for an oil-change, lube and wash for a month... today I just went... I arrived there about 0845... I told the guy I wanted to get the truck waxed and I wanted the underside cleaned too (extra $4)... I waited in the office for the lube to be done and went to pay for the work... the $4 wasn't on the slip so I mentioned it to the lady, she added the $4... I asked "How are they going to know out at the car-wash?" She assured me it had been taken care of... I watched the card go through the car-wash and nopted that the "waxing in progress" and the "undercarriage wash" lights didn't come on when my truck went through... I mentioned it to the girl and she started to tell them to put the truck through again... I told her I didn't have time for that and asked her to just give me my $4 back... she did. I tried to complain to the manager but he was not capable of understanding what I was talking about...

We had a meeting at the Junior High about Mike, it was called a "Manifestation IEP" he appears to be having some trouble comprehending the meaning of rules... he is on a sort of tightrope now... he has to control himself.

I was supposed to take Lumpy out to buy him a new bicycle but I saw an alarm on my PC that reminded me that I had to be in Valencia for a meetine on the Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival... http://www.santa-clarita.com/cp/main.asp I will be working in the theater with the singers selling their merchandize. The picture is the official picture for the event. 

Friday                 March 16, 2001

Autumn had therapy today at the new CCS facility at Buena Vista School... it is out in the middle of nowhere but it is a pretty school. Autumn is such a trooper, she just hangs on every word the therapists say and does everything they tell her to do... as well as she can. 

Christy took all the kids on medication to Kaiser to get their blood tests... they have to be tested to ensure the levels of medication in their blood is within safe limits...

I have been in feeling a little under the weather lately 

Saturday             March 17, 2001

I had another non productive day... still feel like hell actually... Rob called, he is trying to get everyone over to Karen & Blaine's house tomorrow... Hardly get any e-mail any more since I stopped sending out weekly notices... I guess folks are so busy they need to be reminded...

Sunday               March 18, 2001

We went to Riverside today to see Rob before he headed back up to Seattle... I met his friend Mike, who wasn't at all like I expected he would be, I am not sure what I expected so don't ask.

I gave Mike 14 bucks so he could go to see the Monster Trucks at LACR, it's about the only drag-strip left in Southern California

I will add more here later... I am too tired to stay up much longer...